The Story of Alice: American McGee Style
by RaeynnBeau
Summary: Alright; so basically this is literally a walkthrough of the game, story style. It will be long and grueling, but now that I have a beta-reader ... Chapters take me a long time to write, looks like I'll be updating on Fridays; rated T for violence ... R
1. Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk?

A/N: Alright; so I decided to try my hand at writing a walkthrough-ish thingy of American McGee's Alice, since I love this game more than life, and the awesome Helloween4545 on YouTube posted the entire game ('cause he's made of awesome) … So yeah; here you go. The quotes are real 95 percent of the time, either from the videogame itself, or, when I go off on a tangent, from the book. Except the cat's little random riddles, but … Yeah; he shows up randomly because he's definitely my favorite character, and since in the game you can actually summon him up whenever you want, I figured why not.

This chapter is dedicated to Helloween4545 and SuperMargarita, who is my awesome beta-reader. Much love to them both.

Anyway, without further ado …

**Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk …?**

_Lady dear, if Fairies may  
For a moment lay aside  
Cunning tricks and elfish play  
'T is at happy Christmas-tide_

_We have heard the children say -  
Gentle children whom we love -  
Long ago, on Christmas Day,  
Came a message from above._

_Still, as Christmas-tide comes round,  
They remember it again -  
Echo still the joyful sound  
"Peace on earth, good-will to men!"_

_Yet the hearts must childlike be  
Where such heavenly guests abide;  
Unto children, in their glee,  
All the year is Christmas-tide!_

_Thus, forgetting tricks and play,  
For a moment, Lady dear,  
We would wish you, if we may,  
Merry Christmas, glad New Year! (1)_

-- -- -- --

Alice had once again sat down for tea with her friends; she had grown bored with the other world, and had decided to visit the Hatter and the Hare and the Dormouse – they were always an interesting group, they were. Not that she hadn't had a good Christmas; it had been a lovely day, with a lovely party. Dinah had gotten a new ribbon to tie round her neck, a precious little pink satin thing, and Alice herself had gotten many lovely toys. A lovely little deck of cards of her very own, as well as a set of jacks, new dice, a Jack-in-the-box … Alice had also gotten a new croquet set, one of her very own, to share with her family of course, because the one that they had was getting old; and, the mallets were lovely, and hand carved. For her father, her mother had taken her into town, and had helped her select a new rifle for him – he had damaged the one that he had the last time he had gone hunting – as well as a new pair of opera glasses, as he had broken the rod off of his pair as well . Her mother had bought for him a new silver pocket watch, because he had just recently sat on his own accidentally. For her mother, Alice had bought a delicate little hair pin with a lovely little crystal on the end that made her think of an icicle, and her father had gotten for her a little sewing knife so that she could more easily cut the threads when she was embroidering. (2)

Her friends at the perpetual tea party had greeted her as such, because they always were; queer as these three happened to be in Alice's mind, it was probably just as well; they were a good deal more entertaining to be around than most anything else. And, as always, the first thing that the Hatter said to her after acknowledging her presence was of course, 'Why is a Raven _like_ a Writing Desk?' Alice lightly smoothed out her skirts in the chair and thought about it – there was, at one point, she had thought she could guess this riddle. However, she had heard it so many times by now, and had tried for so long to figure out the secret to the question, that she had all but given up on it; either there was no answer, or it was much too clever for the young girl, who was a little older, though not by much, to figure out on her own.

"Now, let me see …" she said, as she always did when presented with the question, because curious Alice always had to at least _try_ to guess the answer to the riddle – and, as the Hatter had yet to tell her the answer (and in fact told her just about every time that he hadn't any idea why a Raven was like a Writing Desk) it would go on like this for a bit, until one of the others decided to tell a story, or something else of that sort. But then, a peculiar smell came to her, unlike anything she had ever smelled in Wonderland, so that she had to give pause for a moment before asking, "now, what do you suppose _that_ is …?" aloud to the other three sitting at the table that was set for many more than three, or even their four.

"Looks like things are not as safe as you left them Alice; a tetrahedron in geometry is just a few lines on paper, but when introduced to reality, it can be rather dangerous … If I were you, I'd set my extra hand to now, my dear … " (3) Alice looked up, and stared for just a second; how peculiar. The Cheshire Cat was sitting on the back of a chair a few places down from her, it's gray tiger fur preened and shining in the sunlight. Normally, he didn't leave that tree in the wood where he had given her directions from when she had first come to Wonderland. She turned her head to the side a little as she thought about this, but it made little to no sense to her. A moment later, the creature was gone, disappearing stripes first, grin last; and a moment after that, everything was turned upside-down; she looked out over where she thought the smell was coming from, and realized that some of the trees were glowing red and giving off black smoke. The forest was on _fire_.

"FIRE!" screamed the Hatter, leaping up from his seat as some of it fell from above and landed on the ground next to Alice herself. "Oh dear, oh dear – ahh!" he frantically started trying to put it out while Alice jumped back, covering her face slightly with the backs of her hands to keep from breathing in the smoke. "You must save Alice!" he called, and the March Hare also joined in, attempting to put it out; the Dormouse however, remained asleep on the table, murmuring out a 'save Alice' between his snores.

But it was no use; the fire and smoke only grew thicker, and Alice tried to get away, crouching down low because it stung her eyes, and it made it hard for her to see and breathe. And then, from the other side of the smoke, she heard a familiar voice – the White Rabbit; though, instead of consulting his pocket watch, he was calling out something to her; she struggled to hear him over the noise of the fire, and eventually Alice heard the White Rabbit cry out to her --

"Wake up, Alice! Wake up!"

-- -- -- --

Suddenly, she was thrown from Wonderland, sitting up in bed with a gasp and looking around; dark clouds of smoke filled her room, and immediately she coughed – she could hear the fire raging, could feel the heat in the house. Nervously, and quickly, she rolled out of bed, and started down the hallway, covering her mouth with one of her hands. The brunette made her way towards her parents room slowly, at the end of the hallway, tentatively calling out "Mom … … ? Dad …?" over the sharp crackling and popping as the fire continued to grow. She knew she had to get out, but she wanted to be sure that her parents were alright as well. She assumed they weren't in their room, and started for the stairs, when she heard a noise on the other side of their door,

"Mom …? Father?!" rushing to the door to their room, she was sure she heard voices on the other side of it; she could barely see now, taking the door and twisting the handle frantically. It was hot to the touch, and burned her fingers, and at first she shied away for a moment before grasping it and ignoring the pain, puling as hard as she could – but it was stuck.

"I can't breathe!" that was her father's voice, she was sure of it; that only made her redouble her efforts, but … She was just a little girl, just past ten years old, and there wasn't strength in her little arms to draw open the door. And the fire was hot and so was the handle, the smoke stung at her eyes and made it hard to see, and even harder to breathe – but still, she tried.

"Get out Alice!" her mother's voice this time, but stubbornly, the girl tried again, dropping to her knees, lungs begging her for clean air she could breathe. She could feel the sweat pouring down the back of her neck, and she could hear the flames; they were getting closer to her, and she knew it – she couldn't stay much longer, but she had to. She had to get them out; she had to save them …

"Save yourself, Alice!" Alice coughed, and again tried the door, throwing her weight back to try and drag it open; but it was no use, and she knew it. She couldn't budge the door – it was almost like it had been locked from the inside, even though it couldn't have been. Tears stung her eyes and her throat and lungs burned; it was hard to even get part of a breath, and the glow of fire illuminated everything in a dark, sinister light. She couldn't do it; she knew she couldn't do it

"Get out of the house!" finally, she gave up; she didn't have a choice; the floor was hot to her bare feet, and she clutched her white rabbit tightly against her as she ran down the stairs, her nightgown tripping her on the last few so that she stumbled. Quickly, she picked her way across the places where the fire was beginning to spread; it burned her legs, and made her cry out and cough; she knew her house well, but in this heat and smoke and darkness, she was disoriented, confused.

And suddenly, she was against the front door of the house; she threw herself at it without question, stumbling out onto the front lawn and collapsing in the snow.

The last thing she heard were anguished screams as the house was consumed by flames, and her parents went along with it.

--End Prologue--

1 – This was in the beginning of my edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass"; I assume it was written by Carroll, and it is titled "Christmas-Greetings FROM A FAIRY TO A CHILD" and was apparently written on Christmas in 1867, which was after the book was first published, yes, but, I thought it nicely set the time as Christmas for this to happen … A bit of a sadistic little thing, aren't I?

2 – if you've played the game, think about this for a minute; what is each one of the gifts she exchanged with her family? - Leave it in a review, and I'll dedicate a chapter to you! (Only available for the number of chapters I'm writing; probably 10 or so… perchance more – depends on how much I want to torture you with ridiculously long chapters; I'm trying to get one area in each chapter … With tangents. xD)

3 – Alright; the first of the Cat's riddles; I'll explain any that I make up myself, so that they make sense ;; Flammable material + oxygen + heat chain reaction called fire; and this is referred to as the Fire Tetrahedron, which is also a geometric shape. A traditional analog alarm clock has an extra hand that sets the alarm; he's insinuating that she should wake up.


	2. Down the Rabbit Hole to Hell

A/N:Alright; next chapter! I sort of spliced the beginning cut-scene with stuff from the manual that I found online (I bought a used copy of Alice, so I don't actually OWN the manual), so … yeah. In the manual, she starts crying when she gets the fixed rabbit back, and says that crazy rhyme, but in the cut-scene, the rabbit speaks to her and she doesn't cry … So I kind of used both concepts, she cries and says the crazy rhyme, and then, the rabbit speaks to her. Ah, compromise. xD Again, direct dialogue quotes from the game and from the manual; if the Cheshire Cat speaks and it's not from the game, I define what he says with my little footnotes at the end …

**Disclaimer****:** (Since I forgot to do it last time xD) Not that you didn't already know, but I neither own Alice nor Alice's Adventures in Wonderland nor Through the Looking Glass; they belong to American McGee and Lewis Carroll, respectively. I own none of the plot, nor the characters mentioned herein; everything, (at least as of right now, I'm pretty certain; I do hate OCs, so for the most part, there shouldn't be any) belongs to one of the gentlemen previously mentioned.

Again, this chapter is dedicated to my beta reader, SuperMargarita, and Helloween4545 on YouTube for posting his walkthrough. (And by the way, I'm doing the best that I can with this, but given what I have, I don't know if I know of any of these 'hidden levels' I've heard a bit about –** if anyone could help me out with that, I'd be much obliged**. I have a dialogue list from wikiquote, and I have the walkthrough of course, and the manual transcript, but I can only be so thorough if I only have half the pieces of the game …)

And now, without further ado, here is Chapter 1!!

**Down the Rabbit Hole to Hell …**

Green eyes stared without blinking at the ceiling, not noticing the drawing that hung next to the window – a drawing of some sort of cat, one she had done herself a few days before; without word, and without warning, she had just gotten up stiffly from the wheelchair that she had been sitting in, the nurse having taken her into the large recreational room with all the other patients. And she had simply picked up a pencil and started drawing on a sheet of paper that was on the table. The picture hadn't come to her; she hadn't known what she was drawing when she started, and she almost didn't know what it was when she finished. She didn't react when the nurses told her that it was a good drawing, and asked her to do more. She had simply gone back and sat down in the wheelchair, drawing in hand, and begun to stare across the room once again.

Presently, she didn't flinch at the lightning storm that raged outside, she didn't flinch when someone came near her – she didn't respond at all. She laid in exactly the position that they had put her in after they had brought her back to her room; the only time she really moved much was when they put her through electric shock therapy, and then it was just muscle spasms because of the stimulation. Alice Liddell didn't know how long she'd been there, because for a good deal of time, she had not been awake, or so she assumed. Her body was one that was small and weak, just older than ten – and then suddenly, still small and weak and scrawny, her body was bigger, her arms longer, her feet and hands larger as well. But if she took notice of that, no one could tell; she remained unresponsive to anything that happened; when they fed her, they had to tilt her head back and rub her throat to get her to swallow – the only things she did was breathe, and of course, her heart beat. Ah yes; that deafening sound – her heart beating. It was always with her; that rhythmic thudding in her chest that professed that yes, she was very much alive.

And her parents were not.

Her parents had died in that fire; they had been roasted alive, because Alice hadn't woken up sooner. Because Alice hadn't warned them sooner. Because Alice had been too _weak_ to open that door for them.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she realized that the person that had come in had put something in her hand; something next to her. And she knew what it was; sure as she knew she had brown hair and green eyes, Alice knew that the woman had put next to her her old White Rabbit doll, with its button eyes and cotton tail. It was an odd sort of knowing; she had a sort of selective awareness. She hadn't heard a word the woman had said – hadn't even realized that she had spoken, really – and yet, she could feel the soft fabric of the rabbit's body against her arm, and she knew just what it was.

The only thing to survive that house besides her – she had carried it out into the snow, and it had fallen down with her, next to her – and she hadn't seen it, touched it, heard from it … since. Slowly, ever so slowly, for the first time in days, and before that, years, Alice moved of her own volition – just slightly; it was only the curling of her arm, which creaked slightly because of disuse. It was a painful movement, but that pain barely touched her – nothing really, ever got a response from her. Nothing mattered to her; nothing surprised her – nothing scared her. The bandages on her arms caught just a little on the doll's body. Yes; that was the only time she had really moved on her own for however long she had been in this place – besides the drawing of the strange not-quite-cat – in this "Rutledge's Asylum".

Besides when she tried to commit suicide, of course.

Tears suddenly began to stream down her face, unbidden, as a horrible, desperate sadness, stronger than anything that she had felt in so long, overtook her. The room became blurry; it made her head spin, her face flush, as her sobs became louder and less controllable. The nurse who had given her the rabbit back said something to her; Alice didn't know what. She didn't care what; she barely noticed the woman who was now leaning over her with a concerned expression. All she could see was her blurred outline, looking down at her, and even then, she didn't really _see_ her.

"Into the hole again, we hurried along our way … Into a once-glorious garden now seeped in dark decay …" she sobbed out so hysterically she could scarcely breathe; she could _feel_ it; she could feel their pain, their suffering … Her Wonderland was in danger; she had been away for so long – she had _abandoned_ it, and now … Now it needed her help; she needed to go back … But Alice couldn't remember the way. She been away for so long she didn't think she could _get_ back – not without the White Rabbit's help; and he was gone ... She hadn't seen him, touched him, heard from him … since.

Gently, her head turned, just a little, so that she might bring her rabbit up to her cheek, like she used to sleep, curled up with it for comfort – when suddenly, a raspy, quiet voice said amidst the thunder,

"Save us, Alice!" the scream caught in her throat, and the brunette leapt back in the bed; he had spoken to her; it had been his voice, old and tired from disuse, that had spoken to her – she was sure of it. The little white rabbit's new eye was removed then, without warning – but she didn't notice this; because she hit her head on the window sill from that sudden start. And suddenly, everything was so very dark …

Alice was falling. It was a very familiar fall, actually, and she felt as if she had done so before – and yet, at the same time, she knew something was wrong. This wasn't a rabbit hole; no … the walls were moving, and not in their normal upwards fashion, as they did whenever she normally fell, and they had the strangest blue color … She couldn't help but scream as she went, as this was so unexpected – however, it also wasn't nearly as long as the fall had been the first time she had gone down the rabbit hole, because Alice suddenly knew with complete certainty that she was indeed falling down the rabbit hole once again. This suspicion was confirmed as down she came upon a heap of sticks, and dry leaves, and the fall was over. Alice was not a bit hurt, as was the case the first time, and any other time she had gone down the rabbit hole. Pulling herself up off of the ground, she began to arrange her dress and smooth it out, pulling twigs from her hair as well, fixing her skirts—

"Please don't dawdle, Alice – we're very late indeed!" Alice started slightly when she heard that, and looking ahead of her, she did indeed see the white rabbit standing there, but … something was wrong. Rather terribly wrong; he was hunched over oddly, instead of standing straight up, and he looked strangely skinny; almost … emaciated, wearing a rather decrepit looking top hat, and a waistcoat as well – in fact, he'dve been dressed very sharply if he didn't look so … Oddly dangerous, eyes bulging out from his head, and looking at her with what appeared to be one that was lazy. Though she very well knew that her friend was not _dangerous_. He could not be … right? But, before she could consider this farther, he had already turned tail and made off down the hallway.

And then, another not-so-familiar face appeared.

"You've gone quite mangy, cat," she said as she started towards him, and he towards her, "but your grin's a comfort." And it was; because the rest of him was not. His once long, gray tiger-fur was gone now, and what was left was a large, skinny creature; he couldn'tve possibly had any meat on his bones at all, because she could see his bones sticking out of his skin at odd, jointed angles. The stripes that had once covered his fur coat seemed to have sunk into his skin, creating odd, unnatural patterns as tattoos across his body, and there was an earring in its pointed right ear. Even its grin was less comforting than it should have been, because it was almost sinister – deadly. It would have put Alice on edge, but this was the Cheshire Cat; he wouldn't hurt Alice ... she thought ... It's bony tail twitched back and forth as it replied,

"And you've picked up a bit of an attitude. Still curious, and willing to learn, I hope?" How odd; he wasn't speaking to her in complete riddles – curiouser and curiouser … Glancing around her surroundings, she noticed things that had not been there the first time she had come here; glowing mushrooms, distorted doorways, the smell of things decaying in the air – it was dark in this hallway, in a not at all pleasant, comfortable way, as it had been the first time she'd come, and even the second, and any other time … The cat and the rabbit themselves were examples to her that something was indeed amiss.

"Wonderland's become quite strange …" she said after a few moments. "How is one to find her way …?" she thought perhaps if she asked a question, since the cat seemed so obliged to tell her straight answers now, he would continue to make whatever semblance of sense he had indeed begun making.

"As knowing where you are going is preferable to being lost, _ask_," he started, raising a paw in the air to gesture at her. "Rabbit knows a thing or two, and I myself don't need a weathervane to tell which way the wind blows." Alice watched him carefully as his face seemed to illuminate, and then, half disappear; it was almost dizzying. She shook her head to clear it and paid more attention to his voice, which was still the same – a deep near-purr – instead of his terrifying features, which were indeed not at _all_ the same.

"Let your need guide your behavior; suppress your instinct to lead. _Pursue Rabbit_." And then, he was suddenly gone before she could even think to ask anything else of him. Well, fancy that. Almost nervously, she looked around, glancing at the walls that almost seemed to _move_ (though she was sure that was just herself being paranoid), and she found herself thinking, 'well, perhaps it is good Wonderland looks the way it does now, instead of having _always_ looked like this; when I was younger, I'dve been positively terrified to even take a step …' Which was true; she was older now, and less afraid, though that didn't mean she wasn't on edge in this strange place ... Glancing down at her hands before she used them to smooth her dress, she noticed odd markings on the pockets of her pinafore, but thought not to question them, or the odd necklace she noticed 'round her neck, and instead put her hands into said pockets and started down the hallway; the Cheshire Cat's advice had never lead her astray before, and that was when it was confusing. Now that it was much less so, it was easier to follow, which almost gave it a sense of urgency to Alice. Rather than let her waste time figuring out cryptic messages, he just wanted her to do as he said. She noticed absently as she walked that her shoes were different as well; heavy boots thudded on the floor as she walked – but again, Alice thought better than to ask about this, mostly because at the moment, there was no one to answer her inquiries. When she saw the Cat again, if she remembered, she would ask more questions of it, but as of now, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Our land is destroyed … Our spirit crushed …" said an odd little gnome creature with something sticking out of his back when Alice approached him. He certainly did look rather depressed, strange for Wonderland, which she was used to being happy, and, even at the worst, simply mischievous.

"Reminds me of the Asylum …" she commented; or at least, it reminded her of what she recalled of the asylum. And she didn't care to recall much, that was for certain. "Is there no joy here …?"

"Slavery and happiness do not dwell in the same house …" was all he would permit her before he suddenly walked off, either having grown weary of her questions or perhaps remembering something that he needed to do. But, she didn't have much time to think about it, because the Cheshire Cat suddenly appeared next to some rising steam that came from an opening in the ground that she was quite sure she had no hope of getting across.

"When the path is problematical, consider a leap of faith – ride the wind …" was all he said, picking up a paw and pointing to the smoke before disappearing again. 'Bloody cat …' she thought to herself (she had wanted to ask him more questions, and he was gone again) as she walked over up a wooden plank to where there was the opening in the ground before cautiously looking down. There was no bottom that she could see – only white steam. 'That won't be very pleasant to fall down …' she thought to herself, looking across the gap. Taking a breath, she decided that she might as well do as she's told, and, backing up a few steps, closed her eyes as she ran and jumped, hoping that the cat hadn't just been playing some kind of a sick trick on her.

It seemed he hadn't.

She floated across, the steam warm and sticky against her legs as her skirt poofed out like some kind of small blue parachute. Alice barely had time to land though, before another of those sad little gnome men caught her attention.

"Stir up no trouble stranger, the Red Queen's agents are ruthless." Alice crossed her arms over her chest; this was her world (no matter how strange it seemed to have become) and nothing in it was going to make her afraid – especially not that ghastly red queen. She had dealt with her once before; she so no problem in dealing with her again, if she was the one that was causing all of these troubles.

"I'm not afraid of her or her creatures – never was, really." She said in an almost haughty tone; her card guards had never bothered Alice before, and that was what she assumed this little man was talking about. "You should stand up to them." Alice insisted in her next breath; honestly, there were more "other things" in Wonderland than there were cards, if she remembered correctly from the last time she was here. Then again, things seemed to have rather drastically changed; perhaps that was no longer true?

"Defiance is useless; while the Queen reigns only death can release us from this misery." Was all he answered; of course, Alice knew that wasn't true. There was always more than one way to do things, of course. Well, almost always.

"Or her death, I suppose …?" she said with a raised eyebrow as she watched little gnome that stood before her for a moment. He didn't have a chance to answer, because suddenly, the Cheshire Cat was talking again, though this time, when she looked for him, he was farther down the path, almost in the next room, his almost frightening grin glowing and fading every few moments.

"Meta-essence is the life force of Wonderland – that of your enemies is especially potent. Collect what you can; use it wisely." Behind the cat, Alice saw something glowing as she moved closer to him; though the cat disappeared before she got to him, the strange triangle did not. It was a familiar shape to her , she knew, as she approached it, walking around part of the wall to get to where it was. 'I believe it's called a …' she counted its sides briefly as it floated there. 'A tetrahedron. Yes; that's it.' Alice thought that perhaps that was important in some way, but she didn't dwell on it; apparently she had things she needed to do, and it wouldn't do to 'dawdle', as the White Rabbit had put it.

Reaching out and touching it, it suddenly disappeared in a small flash of blue, the red leaching into her fingertips before completely disappearing. And suddenly, for some reason, Alice felt … better. Her legs and body had ached slightly from her hard landing (just because she wasn't hurt didn't mean that she hadn't landed hard on the ground). Reserve steeled in a sudden bought of energy, she turned to continue down the path, opposite the direction whence she came, looking for the rabbit, but instead finding something that was glowing green on the ground.

Walking over to it, she paused, before reaching out and taking the knife that was sitting there, lightly running a finger over the tip, which immediately sliced it just a little bit – it was sharp.

"Your knife is necessary, but not sufficient." She jumped slightly as the cat appeared in front of her again, tail twitching back and forth as it looked up at her from where it sat. "Always collect what's useful … Reject only your ignorance, and you may survive." As he disappeared, Alice happened to look up, and happened to notice that on a platform slightly above her, the White Rabbit stood; she immediately turned to follow him, and saw that suddenly, he became very small – very small indeed. He was suddenly no bigger than a mouse or a blade of grass, and just like that, he disappeared into a little hole in the wall that most certainly would not accommodate Alice at her current size. Noticing another little gnome standing nearby, she approached it to ask for a little assistance; but first …

"Everyone here seems completely dejected. Are things really as bad as all that …?" because it was true – everyone she had met so far, the cat not included, but he was already rather insane to begin with, if she remembered correctly, (he had, in fact, claimed this himself, and 'proved it') looked positively miserable.

"The truth would reduce you to a blubbering baby …" he replied, not looking up at Alice, though she couldn't quite get herself to think it rude of him, considering how disconsolate he looked. "Are you the savior Rabbit has been telling us about all this time?" Alice blinked as he looked up at her for a moment before looking back down at the ground. Savior? Well, she certainly wouldn't call herself all that; she was just a young girl. Well, perhaps not so young as the last time she'd come here – she for the life of her didn't know how old she was – but still no older than seventeen or eighteen, she was sure, and probably younger at that. How could _she_ be a savior?

"I shouldn't think so," she said slowly, after a moment. "I'm a person." And then, decided she may as well ask, now that she had his attention. "And just now, I wish to get very small; about this big." She gestured with her fingers spread apart to perhaps an inch, crouching slightly in hopes that he would be able to see better, as he was shorter than her by a good deal. But, he didn't look up for more than a part of a second, and so, Alice stood back up straight – of course, it was improper for a lady to crouch unless she was curtseying.

"Calls for serious twisting," he supplied after a time, as if uncertain whether or not he should say what he was about to tell her. "You'll need to go sideways, not forward. If I knew how, I'd go sideways myself …" Well, that wasn't very much help; sideways? What could he have possibly meant by that? She didn't' want to go _sideways_ – as if that would even work, because the hole was much too small for her to even get the toe of her shoe in, let alone attempt to go sideways through. Alice sighed before deciding that perhaps she should try again – perhaps the second time 'round he'd make a bit more sense. Maybe he just didn't understand her question?

"Not twisted; small. I wish to become about this big," she said as she once again spread her fingers apart about an inch, though this time did not stoop down at all when it became evident he wasn't going to look at her. And, just when she thought that he wasn't going to answer, he said,

"The Fortress of Doors holds such secrets … … But it will take more than a wish to get inside …" Now, Alice _supposed_ he was talking about getting small, and not still going on about becoming twisted and going sideways – besides, what sort of nonsense was that? It was completely useless to her, as it was. Before she could think too much more on this though, the Cheshire Cat was sitting next to her, and he said,

"Doors have locks; locks need keys – which you don't have. Let's hope the doors are open …" Alice looked down at him before rocking back on her heels slightly, putting her arms behind her back and saying before she had a chance to think about it,

"And if not, there may be more than one way to skin a cat …" Realizing that she had indeed said this to the feline that was sitting before her, tail twitching in annoyance, she amended quickly, "if you'll pardon the expression." He looked at her for a long moment before finally saying,

"Most unpleasant metaphor; please avoid it in the future." Before he promptly disappeared. Well good; now she'd gone and upset the only one in this place that was giving her any sort of direction. Perhaps he wasn't _too_ cross with her? She thought he'd probably still help her, if she asked for it. Walking forward distractedly, she nearly screamed when suddenly there was a rather belligerent club in front of her. Jumping back and just missing the end of his spear, she knocked it away with the knife she still held in her hand, attempting to get away from it – what in the devil …? But, he came at her again, tearing her dress a little bit as he caught the edge of it, and thankfully, didn't manage to catch her skin.

"To the royal guards of this realm, we are _all_ victims-in-waiting." The Cheshire Cat's voice echoed throughout the cavern as Alice leapt away from the spear again, knocking the head of it off course with the flat of her rather long knife. And then, she accidentally tripped off of the edge of the platform she stood on, which was slightly elevated from where the Club was standing. Alice hadn't meant to do it; she really hadn't – but as she fell, she seemed to catch the card off guard as well, and suddenly, her knife was in the juncture between its head and rectangular body. She screamed when he did, completely terrified over what she had done, wrenching her knife out of it. It collapsed on the ground, though still attempted to stab her, despite its being on its knees, with the spear. Kicking it away, Alice continued to scream in terror as she sliced nearly wildly with the knife, blood spraying across her apron and dress, and smearing on her face as the Card Guard fell to the ground, dead. And then, it began shrink into nothing, and another one of those odd red, blue-glowing things floated up into the air. Alice dropped her knife to the ground, staring at the floating Meta-Essence; _this _was what the Cheshire Cat meant by 'That of your Enemies is especially potent'. She had to _kill _them to get it? It was their _life_? The essence of _them_ …? Green eyes stared down at the blood stain that had once been a card, falling on the ground and sliding backwards, using her hands and feet. She couldn't … It was … She had just …

"The Guards are tools of the Queen. All suits are dolts, but dangerous." The brunette started as she heard the cat's voice nearby, and looked around for a frightened moment before she laid her eyes on his even more frightening grin. He was standing just to the side of the bloodstain on the ground, and it seemed that one of his paws had landed in the blood on the ground – for he brought it up to his face and started to clean it with a purr … … And when he finished and went back to grinning at her, his mangy, crooked teeth were more blood-stained than they had been before… Alice shivered slightly in disgust.

"But … but surely … Surely you – you saw that … " she shivered slightly; Alice couldn't bring herself to say that 'that' was her _killing_ something … The rather manic-seeming Cheshire Cat just looked at her impassively with his slightly more than slightly sinister grin, before his strange, bony shoulders raised in a slight semblance of a shrug. 'Well, a good deal of help _he_ is …' she thought crossly to herself as she shakily stood up, leaving the knife where it was on the ground. This was ridiculous; in all the times she'd been to Wonderland, she had never heard of anyone besides the Red Queen _killing_ anything before. She was supposed to be defeating the Red Queen; didn't this make her just as good as the monarch?

"As rabbit said, best not to dawdle – you need to get to the Fortress of Doors and become small enough to follow …" the Cat said after a few moments, still grinning that same yellowed, broken, bloody grin at her. She watched him carefully for a moment; did that mean she would have to …? Slowly, she looked between the knife on the ground, and the bloodstain that was next to it, shivering slightly; she couldn't – there wasn't any way; I mean, she was just a little girl … Wasn't she? She couldn't possibly be expected to … 'Well, he _did_ attack you first … I mean, perhaps … You _were_ just defending yourself; if it hadn't been him, after all, it would have been _you_ …' She wasn't sure where these thoughts were coming from, but … She did have to admit, it made at least _some_ degree of sense to her…

Alice didn't notice the Cheshire Cat's grin widen as she bent down to pick up her knife from the ground, examining it after a few moments, before looking at her dress, noticing the flecks of blood that stained her pinafore and the blue skirt. Slowly, her hand moved more of its own accord than anything, and before she realized what she was doing, she was whipping the blood off of the blade, carefully, so as not to cut herself, cleaning off the gleaming metal slowly. And then, she looked at herself in the blade's shine, her reflection blood-spattered and staring back at her with deep, green eyes. Without thinking, she reached out to touch it. But it didn't disappear; hmm. Perhaps she didn't need it then?

More carefully now, she started into the next room, on her guard in case there were more cards milling about that might attack her – she needn'tve been so careful though; the now expired Club was the only guard that appeared to be in the area. Walking across planks, she saw there was nowhere to go except either across or down. And, she hadn't noticed it before, but down was what looked to be swirling green liquid that glowed slightly as it sloshed around. Hmm … Walking over to a wall, she carefully pulled a rock from it and went back over to the edge, looking at the rock for a moment before glancing back down at the green stuff … And unceremoniously dropping said rock in. _Immediately_ it started to hiss and bubble when the rock hit the surface. 'Acid, then.' She thought to herself as the rock dissolved into nothing. Right. She wouldn't be going down any time soon, if she could help it.

That left across, and, after looking for a long moment, she decided she might be able to just make it over the gap if she got a running start … So, backing up a few steps, she ran a bit before leaping, knife in one hand flashing in the odd green glow of the acid that was below her. In fact she almost did _not_ make it, barely managing to hang on to the ledge; Alice hung there, dangling for a moment before she slowly started to pull herself up, setting her knife on the ground above her to make this easier. Her arms were a bit weak, and it took a minute, but she managed to get up and continue on, picking her knife back up before she left, glancing around as she went, looking for some sort of clue as to where she was supposed to be going.

"Only a few find the way – some don't recognize it when they do, some, don't ever want to …" As she glanced down and went to ask the Cat what exactly she should be doing now, because she was sure that he was probably one of the few that knew the way, recognized it, and wanted to, the horridly annoying thing just completely disappeared. A lot of help he was; if he wanted her to go and _kill _things and defeat the Red Queen and free Wonderland from her rule, he could, at the very least, be a little _helpful_ from time to time …

'Aha – there.' She thought to herself as she noticed another little gnome man a little further down the way. Well fine then; not like she needed the Cheshire Cat's help anyway. For the most part, these little gnomes seemed to speak plainly, except for that one that had gone on about twisting …

"Rabbit told us a champion would come. Are you that champion …?" he asked as Alice approached him; he seemed to almost look at her with a certain scrutiny, and Alice decided that if she was going to do this, destroy the Queen's minions, and if she was going to defeat the Red Queen herself, then she was probably something _like_ a champion or a savior; and, it seemed she probably wouldn't get anywhere with most of the inhabitants of Wonderland unless she admitted to being one.

"Perhaps; can you get me inside the Fortress of Doors?" she didn't have time for idle questions; she needed to get small so that she could go after the White Rabbit. Time was wasting – every moment she spent talking was a moment she could have been using to figure this out or to follow the rabbit.

"Oh no; wouldn't dare." Alice sighed mentally; then he was of no use to her, and she almost went to leave while he was still talking, but, remembering that that was rude, she stayed, though rather impatiently, and listened. "Since the upheaval, we've all become gutless half-wits; I can barely risk crossing the road." She started to turn at this, assuming he was finished with what he was going to tell her, but then, paused as he continued. "But, make your way to the mines – the deepest pit – there's one wiser and braver than myself who might help. He still lives free." Oh. Alright; perhaps he wasn't _completely _useless to her. What was it her tutor had always said? Patience is a virtue?

Turning and looking around for a moment, she noticed a sign above a doorway that read "Yur Mine". 'That must be the way to the mines he was talking about then …?' she thought to herself before turning to go towards that doorway; she paused for only a moment as the Cat started to speak from behind her – apparently this was the right way - and the Cheshire Cat knew it.

"Every adventure requires a first step, trite but true – even here." What the cat neglected to mention was that this would indeed be the first step of _many_ … 'How deep does a mineshaft go?' she wondered, because of course she had to go to the 'deepest pit', but … Well, at least while she was walking, she could think this through a little bit; what could possibly have happened to Wonderland while she was gone? She hadn't been back here for a very long time; in fact, she hadn't even been sure that she _could_ come back to Wonderland. And what of the Red Queen? She was always causing mischief before, attempting to behead everyone – but apparently she was much, much worse now.

Alice was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice for some time that she was not, in fact, completely alone. There was something next to her in the dark, small passage that she was walking down, and, as narrow as it was, it walked right up next to her, brushing at the edge of her bloodied skirt. When she finally did notice that there was something there, it was only because something lightly rested on her side and just as lightly tapped at her back every now and again. Shaking her head when she finally noticed this strange, almost ticklish sensation, she glanced down.

"Oh. Hello, Cat," she greeted it, though she wasn't sure how long the emaciated creature had been walking with her, so that might have been a little strange. But if it was, he gave no indication, in fact did nothing at all except continue descending stairs alongside Alice, tail twitching back and forth, and absently tapping her once or twice.

"It's a long way down, isn't it?" she remarked after a time of walking in silence with the Cheshire Cat next to her, his bony shoulder blades moving underneath his skin as he prowled down the stairs next to the girl, pressed just slightly up against the edge of her skirt because of how thin the staircase was. She knew she meant to ask him questions, but for some reason, they seemed to have all vanished from her mind after she had … _disposed of_ that Card Guard … She could barely do anything but focus on walking down the many, many steps that stretched before her, let alone let her mind come up with inquiries that the Cheshire Cat might or might not have answered in some semblance of a sane way…

"And a good deal further down, for those who would dwell in a frozen lake, and reign over all of this … _misery_ …" (1) he almost seemed to spit out that last word as if it disgusted him, though Alice didn't have any idea what he was talking about … Perhaps it would be better for her to just ignore his insane ramblings – well, perhaps they weren't exactly _ramblings_, but … Swallowing, she asked the first thing that came to mind after a few minutes; the silence was outright deafening.

"Will there be … many more that I have to … … " she paused, swallowing thickly as she tried to get her lips to wrap around the word. "_kill_ … then?" there – she said it; she had gotten it out. She'd asked a question, and now, she felt like she would probably get less of an answer than he had given her the entire time. Though, to her surprise, he took a long moment before he decided that he would answer. Or so it seemed, because they went down quite a ways before he said something so suddenly that it made her start; she had thought that he wasn't going to answer.

"Tell yourself; "I've seen worse at Rutledge's". Prevarication in this instance may help." Alice blinked at the Cat, but would say no more, and ask no more on the subject – seen worse at Rutledge's indeed. She couldn't say she _had_ seen worse, because she was relatively certain she had not; even what those two unruly orderlies she noticed from time to time when she wasn't completely unaware and staring at the ceiling did couldn't compare to what she had done to that Card Guard. What kind of answer was that? If it was supposed to console her, it did little by that way – all it served to do was make Alice annoyed, at the very best. They would walk the rest of the way in silence…

-- -- --

It seemed ages had passed before she eventually ended up at the bottom of the stairs, more of that swirling green acid floating lazily below the platform that she stood on. And there wasn't any other way she could see across to the other side where there was another platform … but she couldn't very well go down there where all that stuff was – she'd surely be dissolved into nothing faster than she could blink.

"Hanging ropes are as good as step ladders to those who know how to use them …" Alice started slightly; she had been leaning over the edge slightly, looking for another way across, and nearly fallen in when the Cheshire Cat decided to start talking to her. 'Blasted cat …' she thought crossly as she backed away from the edge, (she was obviously still displeased with the flea-bitten wretch), considering what he'd said before he'd suddenly disappeared. He had walked all that way with her; down all of those stairs without disappearing, and without saying anything, not even anything cryptic, after that remark about Rutledge's. 'Hanging ropes … well I'm sure I don't see any -- oh wait …' she thought to herself as she looked around a bit more carefully; hanging slightly to her left was indeed a rope; she couldn't see how far up it went, because the ceiling was dark, and so, she couldn't quite be sure that it would hold her weight if she were to get onto it, but … The cat seemed to insinuate that she should probably use it to get across, and the cat had yet to lead her in the wrong direction, (even if the direction he _did_ seem to be leading her in was an unduly bloody one), so …

Taking a few steps back, she carefully angled herself so that she would run into the rope, ran forwards and jumped. She slid down a little bit, true, but she held with a firm grip on the rope, and managed to hoist herself up a bit, arms aching from all of the exertion they were going through, as they were certainly not used to this kind of abuse. The force of the jump caused the rope to swing slightly, and she used her body to make it swing further before she jumped off onto the other side of the rope and landed hard on the platform, crouching and rolling slightly. Wincing, she stood and dusted herself off, once again smoothing the dress out before she continued to one side, where there was a particularly old looking gnome standing, holding a pipe that had black smoke rising out of it. 'What in the world do you suppose he could be smoking …?' she wondered to herself as she looked at him for a moment; Alice had never known anything that anyone had put in a pipe (except that rather rancid caterpillar with his foul hookah) to give off anything but white smoke, but … Well, no matter – she had more important things to worry about than what was or was not in some elder gnome's pipe. Obviously it hadn't killed him yet.

"Why do you pursue me to this deserted place …?" he asked her as she came closer; she had put her knife away, tucking it carefully in the waist of her pinafore, so that it wouldn't accidentally poke her, but was in a place she could easily reach, if she needed it. Carefully, she crossed her arms behind her back, making sure not to upset the weapon, before she answered,

"To benefit from your wisdom." Which was the truth; the other gnome had said that he was wiser and braver, and so, would know how to make her small. And alright, so perhaps it was a tinge of flattery, but that never hurt anything before, now did it? Much easier to get someone to do what you wanted if they were pleased by you.

"Even blurred vision is valued by the blind." Oh dear; not more riddles again. Alice didn't have time for this, and she was a little tired after walking down all of those steps for so long. She didn't much feel like deciphering codes. "If I were clever, would I cower in this slag heap? I'm not wise, girl, I've just … grown old." He explained; Alice didn't think that that made much self at all. It was rather easy to stay alive when one stayed hidden and shied away from danger – that, in itself, was wise, if you wanted to stay alive, and probably especially so, in times like this.

"I wish to get very small," she explained, disregarding his question entirely. "No bigger than a mouse. Do you know how I might do that?" Alice rocked on her heels slightly, very much hoping that he would say that he could – she didn't fancy walking back up all of those stairs if he couldn't help and she had to go somewhere else.

"Only that? Oh yes; I could manage that." He said, and a smile started to cross Alice's face; now she was getting somewhere. He _could_ help her! How perfectly splendi-- "For a price." She felt her eye twitch slightly. Of course; there had to be some kind of a catch. Perhaps he would retract the statement when he found out that there was nothing she had to give him …?

"I have nothing of value." She said, still looking at him; with the way that he was eyeing her, which made her feel more than a little uneasy, Alice was pretty certain that there was something that he wanted from her, and, within reason, she would probably give it to him too… (2)

"You have nerve, and your health. Mine are nearly gone. I've seen too much suffering, and I smoke too much, you see." Well; that gave her her answer – he didn't want something from her; he wanted her to do something for him. Well, Alice Liddell was no errand girl, but what choice did she have? She needed his help, and he wasn't going to give it without some kind of favor from her.

"What … must I do?" she asked grudgingly after a few moments, eyeing him carefully. He looked at her with the same impassive expression, taking a puff from his strangely smoking pipe and exhaling before he conceded the information.

"In the Card Guard's Compound, a particularly rough diamond holds a key. Retrieve it. I will … return the favor." For some reason, she didn't really feel like she wanted to trust him to keep his word, but … She didn't have much other choice. She would just refuse to give it to him until he made good on his promise to make her small, she supposed. How hard could it possibly be? Of course, she _had_ heard the part about her foe being a 'particularly rough' diamond, but … If that club from earlier was any indication, she could probably manage just fine. And then, all at once, she realized that he was gone. Well; that was certainly curious. But she didn't really have time to wonder about it, because she was suddenly going through the door that was in front of her, because she had the notion that that was the way to the Card Guard's Compound, as he had called it, deciding that she would focus on performing the task, more so than what laid at the end of it, and what that meant for the card she would be facing.

Standing on a small platform that raised, she looked around a little, and decided that she would much rather not be in this place for much longer – she just wanted to get in, get rid of the Red Queen, and be done with it already. All of this doing favors nonsense had better not take her too long. She didn't like the way that Wonderland was looking, and she wanted to get it fixed as soon as she could.

A little surprised when it suddenly jolted, Alice realized that it was more something akin to a mine cart than an elevator shaft, and sat down as it started moving through the mine. The coal that she was sitting on was sure to dirty her legs, but she didn't really have much choice, now did she? Not that it mattered much; her dress was ripped and stained with blood – what harm could a little coal-dust do? Glancing around the gloomy place, Alice started again when suddenly, there was something sitting next to her on the cart; something bony with a rather wide smile.

"Oh look; you've gone and startled me again," she said almost crossly, but not really. She liked having the cat around, well … sort of; it was like a small 'creature comfort', if you'd pardon the pun – he was a creature, to be sure, and it was a small comfort when he was near, if only because that meant that she wasn't completely alone, even if he was terribly insufferable and said the most rude things at times ... "And, as I've told you before, I rather wish you wouldn't keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly; you make one quite giddy!" But, instead of responding in consent as he had the first time she had ever said the same line to him, he instead said something quite different.

"I'm afraid, my dear, it is my lot in life. It would do you well to listen to the gnome's words; twist your shape … And be a little less noticed yourself." (3) Was all he said to her, and perhaps slightly curtly at that, before he was suddenly gone again. Just in time for Alice to notice that the cart had come to what looked like the end of the tracks – and the cart was still wildly speeding down them. At the last second, she jumped to the side, where there was a platform, and stood to watch it fall down into more of that green liquid. 'A lucky thing that I wasn't in that, now isn't it?' she thought just before there was a sharp pain in her arm, and she turned just in time to see that she had been stabbed by a Guard – not a diamond, but a club, this time.

Drawing her weapon and supposing she was lucky that she hadn't been hit in a more concerning place, she made quick work of this one, slicing at it a few times with her uninjured arm, the blade of the knife easily cutting through it, blood spattering a bit more on her dress. This time, when the Meta-Essence appeared, she touched it without question, and suddenly, her injured arm, once bleeding, stopped, and cleared itself up in an instant. There was still blood on her arm, which she absently whipped on her skirt underneath her pinafore, before she smoothed it back down; it was already ruined, so what did it matter? 'Interesting …' she thought to herself after a few moments, putting her arm before her and flexing her fingers a bit before, knife in hand, continuing on, up a plank and to the next room.

Here, there was something glowing, much like the knife had been, and it immediately drew her attention. As she went over, she realized that it was just a deck of cards; nothing particularly special, and almost left them where they were, except that she remembered the cat's earlier words, _Collect what's useful_. 'Perhaps they are more useful than they look …?' she wondered to herself as she picked up the deck, examining it for a few moments.

"52 Pickup is a staple of juvenile humor – but when the deck slices and dices, it's no laughing matter." She glanced down at the cat that was sitting next to her now before carefully picking up one of the cards from the top of the deck and examining it; the edges were sharp – deadly toys, to be sure. Experimentally, she tossed one; in a flash of blue sparks it flew away from her hands and into the wall across the room, exploding in a flash of blue sparks again. She blinked; well, that could be rather useful indeed. After a few moments, she threw another one; it seemed that this deck wasn't going to run out of cards, because Alice threw quite a few before realizing that she still had the same amount of cards she had before she started throwing them. 'Even curiouser …' she thought to herself.

"I do realize that a tabby does more than a tom, but please try to exercise _some_ control; otherwise, you will find yourself unable to manage your inhibitions …" (4) And it was official; the cat was back to its enigmatic self. Alice hadn't realized it had continued to sit there, but she rather pointedly ignored it; if it wasn't going to talk in a sensible fashion, now that she knew that he was quite capable of it, then she simply was going to disregard whatever he said.

This was all well and good in theory – however, that was before she suddenly, a few moments and quite a few throws later, seemed unable to throw any more cards. She simply could not manage to throw them. It wasn't that she wasn't being as accurate as she had been before, or even that she had run out of cards … But for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to throw even one more; it was as if she didn't have the will to go on; to do any more than she had.

"If you're feeling a little bit less intractable, try picking up some Meta-Essence. Next time, and I don't say this lightly, be a little more _canine_, if you please." (5) The cat said with some irritation, though Alice knew if she turned to look he'd be gone. Sighing to herself, she glanced around for a moment, seeing two pieces (if that's indeed what they were …) of Meta-Essence in the room, and upon touching both of them, felt a good deal better. Sighing, she glanced down at the cards in her hand before slipping them into one of the pockets of her pinafore; she would stick with her knife for a while, she thought.

"Seek and Ye Shall Find, they say – but they don't say what you'll find …" Alice paid little heed to what the Cat was saying; of course she knew what she was going to find – a key and a Diamond that would be guarding it; what was that mangy cat going on about? Continuing through the door that was before her, she started up the stairs and was eventually met with a bit of a surprise; oh true, there was a diamond at the top. But he was flanked by two black cards; clubs, by the look of it – but then, she wasn't completely paying much attention. 'Ridiculous lying gnome; I suppose he simply _forgot_ to mention that there were other cards than just a diamond …' she thought sourly as she ran up, slicing them with the knife; best not to let them get the upper hand and land a blow. 'One. Two. One. Two …' she counted to herself as her knife went through and through. And, with one last 'snicker-snack', the diamond, which was the last one to fall, was dead. Quickly, she collected more Meta-Essence, which healed the wounds she had managed to contract – well, you try fighting three card guards with exceptionally long spears using only a knife; it was difficult to do, let alone while trying not to be hit at all.

Walking forwards, she saw the key the gnome elder must've been talking about sitting on a table. 'And a good thing it wasn't on the diamond's person,' thought Alice, 'or else it might've disappeared right along with him – and then where would I be?' Walking up some steps, she noticed a doorway that had oddly colored lights in it – green and purple, mostly. Hesitantly, she walked towards it, not sure if it was going to jump out and attack her or hurt her if she touched it or not, but … That curiosity was what kept her going in Wonderland the first time – perhaps it would prove useful again …?

And, it seemed to as she stepped through it, and it took her back to the place where she had met the elder gnome. Well; almost. Actually, she was a good deal lower, and across that green acid, but, Alice didn't have much time to dwell on this, because there was a card guard standing right next to her, and there were two that were throwing things at her from higher platforms as well. 'Well how do you fancy that?' she thought as she unceremoniously cut off the head of the closest card, which happened to be a club before turning and dodging what looked to be large chunks of Meta-Essence at her; but she knew it wasn't because it didn't glow blue, and so, would be staying away from them. 'They must be diamonds …' she thought to herself as she turned to look at her enemies, which were a good distance away from her. 'What with those diamond-shaped things they're throwing at me …'

She wasn't too sure how to dispatch the two diamonds that were standing in her way; she had seen the elder gnome go into another one of those green and black masses of light, and so, had assumed she should follow … And by chance, as she dodged one of those queer little diamond things, she touched her pocket, where there was a bulge. 'Of course! The Cards!' Alice realized as she hastily tucked her knife into her pinafore, so that she'd have two hands to use the cards with – one to throw them and one to hold the rest of the deck. She wasn't an excellent shot with the cards, but she threw them almost instinctually with little flicks of her wrist, which sent them far enough. At first her aim was off completely, but she adjusted it by sight, eventually managing to hit each diamond a few times; it took quite a few more hits for her to finish them off than it would have with her knife, but she didn't want to have to go and _retrieve_ said knife – and what if she missed? She'd be down a weapon ... When all was said and done, and she had gone and collected some more Meta-Essence to feel a little better, (for she had learned that this would apparently be the case in Wonderland; if she was injured or didn't feel like she could go on, she needed to get some Meta-Essence), she followed behind the elder gnome, thinking to herself all the while that this gnome was much more trouble than he was worth.

"You have the key; very resourceful … Rabbit's confidence is not misplaced; he is no fool …" she was starting to get a little annoyed at this gnome; she had taken the key from her pocket to prove that she had it, and had hastily replaced it and the cards she had been using as well. He was sitting on some sort of bicycle with a large basket in front attached to a balloon.

"I certainly hope he is not," she said tersely, fingering the knife in her waistband; she did wish he would get on with it – was she supposed to get in the basket, or …? It appeared so, as she stepped forward and sat down, and he didn't say anything. Alright then; looked like he really was going to take her to the Fortress of Doors.

"Use the key to free my clan from the oppressive burden they carry. Any fight against the Queen's tyranny is a good fight. They've suffered …" Alice didn't have time for this, and she didn't much care to listen to sob stories about people that she had never before met and never particularly wanted to either. She just wanted to get _small_ …

"I'm sure I'm very sorry for them sir, really I am," she interrupted, wishing he would just be quiet and peddle faster, "but what about me getting small …?" And suddenly, next to her, was sitting the Cheshire Cat, as if he had always been there. She felt a bit cross with him, though she wasn't entirely sure why; he had been mostly helpful up until now, save when he decided to be particularly enigmatic. Absently, Alice curled her legs up to the side; she was a bit tired from all of her escapades, and now that she finally had the chance to rest, she felt perhaps she should do so. No telling what she would find in this so called "Fortress of Doors", as it were…

"Perhaps we shall see you again when you decide you can make up a little more depth …" was the last thing she heard from the cat that laid next to her before she allowed her eyes to slip closed, and leaned against the side of the basket, letting the comforting darkness of sleep take her …

(End Chapter 1)

1 – He's making reference to Dante's Inferno; the last circle of hell in the center of the earth, is frozen over, and it is the farthest you can go away from god, and so, as far down as you can go.

2 – and no, that is not supposed to be an innuendo. When I went back and skimmed over this, when I got to this part, I was like … Oh god … ;;

3 – He's making a play on words; stealth technology in aircrafts is called "Low Observability Technology" or LOT; shape is very important to LOT, and whether or not an aircraft is detected, especially on radar, which is why he's telling her to twist her shape to be less noticeable.

4 – In scientific studies, it has been proven that males have less self control than females, and the definition of willpower is partially one's ability to control one's on inhibitions; in the game, the stuff that is akin to 'magic' is your willpower, and it costs willpower to use your cards.

5 – This one's easy; be more like a dog because dogs are obedient.

6 – Another play on words; a "return" is the receding edge on a flat face of architecture; it's what gives something depth. So he's saying they'll see her when she returns.


	3. Gaining Depth

**A/N****:** This chapter was SO HARD for me to write … I am not looking forward to every other chapter; the gameplay ones are easy enough, but trying to make the non-gameplay chapters as long as the chapters that quote the games is ridiculous … it took me more than twice as long to write this one than it did to write the last one, and this one is about 3 pages shorter … I should probably point out that this chapter covers the manual's journal entries from 11 September 1873 to 3 November 1873 (the night in which she goes back at the end of the chapter), in case anyone wanted to know … And, I'm sorry if it's a little hard to read; she is a little insane, after all, so not everything will make _perfect_ sense all the time …

**Disclaimer****:** Again, not that you didn't already know, but I neither own Alice nor Alice's Adventures in Wonderland nor Through the Looking Glass; they belong to American McGee and Lewis Carroll, respectively. I own none of the plot, nor the characters mentioned herein; everything, (at least as of right now, I'm pretty certain; I do hate OCs, so for the most part, there shouldn't be any) belongs to one of the gentlemen previously mentioned.

Again, this chapter is dedicated to my beta reader, SuperMargarita, and Helloween4545 on YouTube for posting his walkthrough, as well as Kuronoichi Of Chaos for guessing just about right, and Wile E Coyote for reviewing on each chapter! :)

**Gaining Depth**

Large green eyes stared at the ceiling impassively once again, as they had for years at a time, unblinking, un_feeling_. However, Alice was no longer as she used to be; she had awakened. Which was strange, because the last thing she remembered of Wonderland was falling asleep – so, how was one to fall asleep and yet be awakened …? Not that those were Alice's own words anyway; if she could call it what she pleased … Well, she wouldn't really call it anything, because Alice didn't really fancy speaking. That strange little verse that had come to her mind and passed her lips unbidden, before she even realized what she was saying, just before she had gone to Wonderland for the first time in ages had been the first thing she had said since she had called out her parents' names as she struggled to open that horrid door … But that was what her doctor and the nurses that tended to her would call it; an awakening.

Well, to a degree, anyway. She wasn't speaking, wouldn't feed herself, and didn't do much but stare at the ceiling, as she had done for years – as she did now that she was back from Wonderland. However, one of the Nurses had walked in with a pencil tucked behind her ear, and when she came close to see if Alice was lucid, the girl had plucked the writing utensil from its perch and rather unceremoniously began to draw on the white wall underneath the window next to her bed. By the time the nurse had gone and retrieved a piece of paper for Alice (well, actually, she sent someone to get one because she didn't trust Alice enough to leave her alone with something sharp), she had already drawn out something that looked akin to … well, a mineshaft, with strange mushrooms growing from the floor here and there. And some hunched over _thing_ with a large circle adhered to its back. She seemed to be finished then, because she put the pencil on the nightstand, and laid back down the way that she had been before, idly staring at the ceiling.

She didn't notice when that man came into the room and began to ask her questions; what her picture was, how she thought of it, what that strange thing with the ball was, where this picture was from …. Alice did nothing but stare at the ceiling, unresponsive; she only came to life, it seemed, when she was doing some sort of drawing. No one noticed that when the doctor instructed one of the nurses to leave a dulled pencil on the small table in the room along with a few sheets of paper, a smile quirked at the edges of the catatonic girl's lips.

She had drawn on the wall for a very simple reason; well, at least, to anyone else it seemed a simple reason – to her mind, it seemed complex, and difficult, and if it wasn't perfect, it wouldn't work anyway. Alice had left Wonderland; completely on accident. She hadn't known that if she fell asleep, it would send her back to _this _place – to Rutledge's Asylum. She didn't want to be there; Alice didn't want to be anywhere near this horrid place; she wanted to go back to her Wonderland, no matter how distorted and deformed it had become. She needed to help; she needed to follow the white rabbit. _Pursue Rabbit_, he had said – the Cheshire Cat, that was. Or was it 'that is'? Which one was more proper …? But how could she follow his advice, which was normally very good advice, if at times confusing, (and she tended to give herself very good advice as well, she just never seemed to follow it), if she wasn't anywhere near Wonderland now? She couldn't very well, now could she? And that was distressing to the brown haired girl; how was she supposed to fix Wonderland and help her friends and the rest of the inhabitants therein, if she couldn't be there in the first place?

As earlier mentioned, she indeed gave herself very good advice very often; she just very seldom followed it – but, the problem was, how was she to know what exactly was good advice, and what wasn't the best of ideas? Well, to this Alice Liddell, whose mind had always been sharp and working, for the nearly ten years she had laid in the bed in the asylum where she still took up her silent countenance, decided that whatever her first idea was on getting back straight away to Wonderland was as good as any, you see, and so, she should probably follow that sort of 'advice'. And, when she had seen the pencil behind the nurse's ear of course, she had gotten a grand idea at that; and, without really stopping to consider what she was doing, she began _drawing_ her Wonderland; or at least, what she had seen of it, as it looked now. The mine shaft, and those wretched little gnome creatures – the Cheshire Cat, she had noted almost blindly, was already on the wall – on a piece of paper, which she did not recall writing on herself, but in fact had, a short while before her reunion with Wonderland. But, when she got to the strange little mushrooms, she realized that it wasn't working; there was no rabbit hole, no White Rabbit to guide her, no Cheshire Cat giving her advice … And so, she had dejectedly (though you woudln'tve been able to tell that by looking at her) set the pencil back down and laid back on her pillows.

She couldn't get back without help; she had only been able to go back to Wonderland because the White Rabbit had helped her – that much was certain and obvious to her. She had just hoped that she could get around it, if she perhaps tried to make this place more like Wonderland – though obviously, that was not the case, because she had tried her best, nearly breaking the pencil's almost blunt tip as she drew on the smooth white wall beneath the barred windowsill beside her. But that wasn't in the rules; oh no. And Alice was a good girl, and of course would play by the rules.

It was just too bad she didn't know what the rules _were_.

The rabbit doll beside her looked up at Alice with its one button eye, the other one missing, which scarcely made a difference to the girl – for she had gone back to staring at the ceiling. Though the little thing looked a good deal sadder than it had before, what with its only one eye, and its being sort of pressed up against Alice's side with one of her stiff arms, almost as if she had been ignoring it – but that was ridiculous. How could Alice ignore one of her dearest and oldest friends, who even had not deserted her when everyone else had seemed to? What kind of friend would she be?

And yet, none of them would know of these considerations that were going through the girl's head, because Alice's deep green eyes just stared at the ceiling impassively, jaw clenched as it normally was, always giving the orderlies and nurses trouble when it was meal time …

Left alone with her thoughts and her rabbit for company, the now teenage girl did not speak; no, though she was inclined to utter noises every once in a while, as if she were getting her words back – relearning how to say things that she could have when she was seven. A bright young child, true, and one that could very well take care of herself, and by extension could take care of anything that was hers as well. Or at least, that was what she had always thought; Wonderland, however, had never needed help before – it had always been fine. It had always been stable in its instability, of course. It had never been … _rotting_, like it was now. She could still taste the decay that filled the air, with the thick scent of dirt and ash in the mine shafts as she descended, the Cheshire Cat by her side, a rather faithful, though at times faithless, companion, she had come to find.

However, the girl, as she was left alone with her thoughts and only her stuffed rabbit for company, soon began to consider how indeed it seemed she needed to _help_ her Wonderland … how it seemed that she was going to save her once childhood play-place; she recalled the feeling of the hilt of the knife in her hand that she had held. She recalled the sound of the Card Guards as they fell from her cold steel – she remembered watching it, almost in shock the first time that she had taken one down. Alice could even remember how difficult it was, if even there was only a second's pause between blows, to drag the blade form the card's body, only to plunge it in again, _deeper_. Deeper, as the smell of blood circled around her, filling her terrified senses. The brunette could recall every detail of what had happened completely perfectly really; the memory was so vivid that she could scarcely get it out of her head for a moment. In fact, it was like she was reliving it every time that she saw it, right down to the Cheshire Cat licking the spilled blood from one of his paws before he had deigned himself presentable enough to speak to her.

'Silly cat,' she thought to herself, 'doesn't he know that when one's claws are cut, it's customary to bleed a little …?' Though even Alice wasn't quite sure what that thought meant; she had still thought it, and so she would not question it. There weren't many things that the girl questioned anymore; this, however, was one of them: why did she have to _kill_ to save her Wonderland. 'Surely it wasn't built on death,' she reasoned, 'so why on earth should it be saved by it …?' Alice had a bit of an _aversion_ to death, if you'd pardon, of course, and so, it didn't quite sit well with the ten year catatonic teenager that she needed to _cause_ it. She would do much to save her Wonderland, that much was true – however, when she had started to follow the orders of the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit, she had thought she would just have to talk to the Queen – not reason with her – there was no reason to be had with her, especially when she was beheading people or worse. And there was no reasonable reason for reason to be reasoned with when reason without reason wasn't really reason at all, but rather a reasonably more distorted sort of reason, for that reason, that in fact wouldn't change its reasoning, which, when put that way, was reasonable, Alice supposed.

However, she also supposed that she should be able to at least speak with the Queen of Hearts – she had done as much before, when she had first come into contact with her. Perhaps it hadn't done much to change things – or perhaps it had. Alice didn't recall being able to remain and find out, and to be sure, she had not. She had simply been put back onto the riverbank, or back into her living room, in which case meant that she hadn't been able to see what had happened after the chaos it seemed she had caused. However, as she had been allowed to go back, after all this had happened, begged to the conclusion that whatever influence Alice _had_ had on the Queen when she had been there hadn't been a_ bad_ sort of influence, right? And, by the same token, now that she couldn't seem to get back by herself, perhaps the influence she'd just had on Wonderland was in fact now considered a _bad_ one …?

But then, how could it have had any influence at all, if before she had gone back, she hadn't been able to get to Wonderland alone in the first place …?

It was all very confusing to a once clever girl of seven who was now, due to her age, perhaps, a little less clever than she ought to be. But then again, when one has been catatonic for ten years in the Rutledge's Asylum, then one can't particularly expect one's mind to be much more developed than it was at the age whence one in fact became catatonic. So, there were two options really; to consider this girl a particularly clever seven year old still, or else to consider her a slightly less brilliant seventeen year old – but whichever the case was, it didn't change the fact that Alice's mind still turned itself in circles desperately when left to its own devices. And right now, she was fixated on one small fact; she hadn't really been thinking about it when she was in Wonderland, but given the time alone with her thoughts now, she couldn't help but think about it and only it. Even if it had been about to kill her first, that didn't make it right to _kill_ things, now did it …? She certainly didn't think so; it was very improper, she was sure, for a lady to do something so very vulgar as murder – especially when the means was stabbing something to death. Of course, her lessons had never really covered the subject of murder (she supposed that perhaps they would have gotten to such a topic at a later date, if she had continued her lessons and that fire had never happened), so Alice wasn't really completely _sure_, but she assumed it was much like the fact that it was improper, nigh _unthinkable_ for a lady to go hunting and handle a gun, which she supposed was very like killing in its own way. In fact, it _was_ killing, of course, but it was for leisure, so that was alright, wasn't it?

The fact that Alice hadn't had _fun_ while she was doing it probably was a sign that it couldn't be called 'hunting', she supposed.

But what then, would one call it? She knew that murder was wrong, but suppose that wasn't quite it either – murder implied that one was destroying something that was helpless; she had heard her mother speak once or twice of it, if it were written in a novel that she had finished reading, or was of particular interest to her. Murder was when you killed something that had no way to defend itself; no chance to survive. But that certainly wasn't the case here; the Card Guards were well armed in Wonderland, and they always came at her first, of course … And, perhaps it wasn't _so_ improper, because it wasn't like she had actually been handling a _gun_; it had been a simple knife that one could find in any kitchen; perhaps a little large for carving up poultry, but Alice had never really spent much time in the kitchen with the servants, because that wasn't proper for a lady, and so, she wouldn't really know that, now would she?

These thoughts were the ones that plagued her, running back and forth through her head for a long, long time; she lay where she had been, completely catatonic still, except for blinking every once in a while and having a hard grip on her rabbit; she wasn't willing to let it go – even when those nasty orderlies came in and tried to take it from her. Alice wouldn't let go of her rabbit, and she wouldn't willingly respond to most anything that happened; the electric shocks still got her muscles to twitch, though the leeches never had before and still had no effect on her. Bloodletting, it seemed, was probably the most useless tactic they tried, and so they seldom ever tried it. She didn't feel the pain of their teeth digging into her skin for more than a moment, and never even twitched when she did – it was a bare prick of pain, no worse than stubbing one's toe a little against a door jam.

She'd done a few more hesitant sketches every once in a while, if the mood struck her; each time something different from the last, and normally it was when an idea struck her that perhaps _this_ will allow her back into Wonderland, or if I perchance were to sketch out _this_ scene just right … She drew the strange blue rabbit hole, and the mineshaft, the strange little gnome men, and the grin of the Cheshire Cat – she had even gone so far as to draw the White Rabbit's pocket watch, as if perhaps he would come looking for it, mistaking the drawing for the real thing, so that he would see her and take her back down that blasted rabbit hole that she could no longer seem to locate – couldn't figure out how to fall back down, as it were… Her drawings were as accurate as she could make them; she was very meticulous with her blunt pencil, using only one sheet of paper for each one, as if it wouldn't suffice if she didn't get the picture right the first time. She would always sit up randomly from her musings when she was going to draw a picture, and then, she would turn to the paper next to her and draw on the little table that stood there, pencil moving slowly and carefully over the white surface. She recreated as perfectly as she could the vivid scenes that she could remember. Alice drew with the most accurate of details in each still picture, shading in the blood on the Cheshire Cat's grin, and the cracks in the White Rabbit's pocket watch …

Sadly it was to no avail; she was unable to conjure up the White Rabbit, or even the Cheshire Cat, who had never once come before to lead her into Wonderland, because she was desperate. She was looking for a way back to Wonderland before she convinced herself that she really didn't want to _go_ back. She wouldn't deny that the place had frightened her; she wouldn't deny that she knew it was wrong to kill things, especially if she didn't find it fun, and she most certainly did _not_. She wanted to save Wonderland; she knew she could do it, even if she didn't know how it had become that way, or why she knew that she could do it. Alice was just certain of one thing – she had created Wonderland, and so she should very well be able to fix it if there was something wrong with it.

The problem was – did she want to …?

Slowly, Alice blinked up at the ceiling once again; how long had it been since she had been to Wonderland …? She didn't know; hours? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? … She had no capacity of time really; not that it was of much consequence to her – but it felt like it had been a good long while, though she couldn't prove that it had been for sure. However, she did tire, she was sure, of those nasty orderlies – they had been harassing the girl again, and though she didn't particularly care … They hadn't been happy when she'd started _laughing_ at them. The first real response anyone had gotten out of the girl besides her hand tightening around her rabbit when it seemed like someone was about to take it away from her. It wasn't Alice's fault though – it wasn't as if she could _help_ it; what they said to her was terribly hilarious – at least, it was to her. Talking about their long-awaited battle, though she had yet to see them have it; that nasty crow always came down and made them quite forget their quarrel … She wanted to recite the nursery rhyme to them, for it was so funny to her that they would _still_ insist upon battling, even if they were to forever be frightened away by that large bird … But she couldn't speak for the giggles that had consumed her. Even though she knew very well that it was impolite to laugh at someone just because their arguing was ridiculous, Alice's lungs wouldn't listen. Even as they threatened to strap her down so that she couldn't move at all, she kept giggling drunkenly at them – they would have done it too, if the good doctor hadn't walked by at that very same moment and given them a harsh reprimand in Alice's favor.

"Good help is _so_ hard to find …" he said when they left the room, and had taken to examining Alice, who had fallen back against the bed when the Orderlies had stopped talking; if they were no longer arguing over who had or had not broken the new rattle, then there was no longer anything absurd to be taken as funny; either they had decided to stop fighting verbally, and go to that clearing where they would battle over the rattle, or when the good doctor had come in, they were already battling, and the monstrous crow had come down, and she hadn't noticed it for the commotion that the doctor had made. But either way, the fight was over, and as such, Alice relaxed again, staring up at the ceiling with her jaw clamped firmly shut as had become customary for her – and she went back to thinking. Because that was what she mostly did; clung to her little, one eyed white rabbit and absently reasoned in her mind about either how she was to return to Wonderland, or if, by this point, she even wanted to. If there was even a point anymore to her going …

Again they brought in the leeches, and again there was no effect; there was a strange, large man that came in – Alice didn't look at him, didn't see him, but she could _smell_ him. He smelled … _Unnatural_; he smelled like something foreign to Rutledge's Asylum; like he didn't belong there, and seldom ever came. She hardly noticed the leeches; in fact, the only reason she knew that there _were_ in fact leeches that had been put against her arms was that when she pulled her rabbit closer to her, she had vaguely glanced dark shapes against her skin – upon further inspection, they were welts and bruises where the little creatures had been drawing blood from her already much too skinny form. She had hardly twitched during the treatment, and afterwards proved no different. Alice barely even noticed they were there, let alone if they were still painful, or any such nonsense as that.

"?tibbaR .rM, kniht uoy od tahw dnA …" (1) she murmured as she turned to the little hare that laid next to her still, faithfully – he was really her only friend left, it seemed. Quite honestly, he was the only one that really stayed with Alice; even the White Rabbit from Wonderland hadn't come back to bring her to the world – he had left her here while her Wonderland suffered. It lay decaying and miserable on the other side of the Rabbit Hole, while Alice laid here in this cold, hard bed, decaying and just as miserable as her Wonderland, she was sure. But did the White Rabbit care? It appeared that he did not, for she was certain that he would have come for her by now and taken her back whence she came, so that she could help her dear Wonderland through its troubles. However, her rabbit … it seemed good at listening, or at least, it wasn't interrupting her when she spoke – she supposed it could have just been being polite, after all, but she thought that that probably wasn't it. It was her _friend_, after all – she was sure he was being respectfully quiet, because he wanted to let her finish what she was going to say, rather than interrupt.

"?uoy t'nera won, tibbar elttil doog a s'erehT …" (2) she cooed to it, cuddling it closer and hugging it to her. Alice turned on her side a little so that she could better address it while facing it; it was only fair, you see, if he was being so polite to listen, that she give him her full attention, and of course that meant that you were to look at whom you were speaking to – it was proper manners, you know. Or perhaps you didn't know; in which case, Alice had just done you a great favor in educating you in the more proper ways, so that you were less a vagabond, and would better fit in to society. Lightly, she smoothed its fur a little bit away from its one button eye, as she continued to speak to it.

And so, she took to talking to her little stuffed rabbit all of the time. When she was awake, that was, which was often. She didn't sleep much, for now she had found a new companion to talk to, and of course, she would be heartbroken if she were to wake up and it was gone like her parents had been. She talked of many things with it; she spoke of Wonderland, and of what it had become. She talked about wanting to go back, but not wanting to kill – she told it that she wanted to fix Wonderland, but not being sure how she was supposed to do that; she even told it how abandoned she felt because her friends were leaving her here in Rutledge's, which, while not so bad because she really didn't particularly care what happened to her now, she did care about what happened to her Wonderland – or at least, she thought she did. However, the more she talked to her rabbit, the more she saw the truth for what it was. Wonderland had abandoned her. Perhaps they had found their _real_ savior; perhaps they didn't need her as a champion anymore – they left little Alice to rot because they had found someone who had a better offer than her. It ended up making her feel rather bitter, all things to be considered, and she was not in the wrong, she thought – if you were left alone by your only friends for who knew how long, wouldn't you want to stop being their friends?

When she couldn't herself get back to Wonderland, well, that had been different – she hadn't been able to go herself, and she hadn't thought her friends could come back out into this place so that they could recover her. Which was sad, but understandable – and Alice felt horridly guilty when she had come to this conclusion. However, now it was different -- they had proven her wrong, and she had in fact seen for herself that the White Rabbit, at the very least, could speak to her in this world. Could indeed lead her back to Wonderland, if he so chose. But that was it, wasn't it? If they had no need for her, then they wouldn't choose to bring her back there; who wanted a small child wandering around in their world, so different and estranged to her now?

Well, that was fine then.

If Wonderland didn't want her, then _Alice_ didn't need _Wonderland._

It was as simple as that; she had come to the conclusion with her rabbit cuddled in her arms one very stormy night, curled up under the blankets and talking over the thunder and lightning that were going on outside as rain pelted the thin windows. Her brown hair was in tangles around her, as it always was now – she was more active, since she had found her little treasure of a friend, rolling around in bed as animatedly as she talked to it at times, holding it up in the air away from her, or cuddling it close to her, which was more often the case. She didn't want to lose this too – the last thing that she had in this world that was hers and hers alone. It wouldn't leave her though – she knew it. It had survived fire and the test of time for her, and returned; it would stay for her. It would stay here, where all others had failed. Where she had been abandoned by her precious Wonderland, and thus where she had decided to abandon it as well. Perhaps it was that strange stuff one of the nurses had brought for her to drink; had given her a spoonful of. She hadn't gotten a look at the bottle, but she was rather sure that even though it did not have the sort of mixed flavor of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast, that it might still have been labeled 'Drink Me', and so, perchance, it meant that this was the way she needed to get back to Wonderland, and get small, so she could finally see where the White Rabbit had gotten off to. But it indeed had done nothing of the sort, and so she had given up on the idea almost as soon as it had occurred to her; remember, she was done with Wonderland.

She didn't need to look to know he was there, of course. She knew as soon as he was there that he was in fact there, and it made no difference to her. Alice ignored him as if he wasn't even in the room, chattering on to her rabbit doll as she stroked its soft ears and tapped it on its little nose. The brunette wouldn't acknowledge him at all; eventually, he would tire of being ignored, and he would go away. Or at least, that was what she hoped; as a giver of guidance and advice, he much rather would prefer attention to being ignored, or so Alice thought. He stood for a long time in silence, just watching her – though Alice never took her eyes off of her rabbit, cooing softly to it and playing with its paws lightly. He was voiceless for the moment, it seemed – and he moved quietly, though not quite without sound, across the cold tile flooring; and Alice betrayed herself for just a flicker of a moment, twitching slightly as she heard his vile claws click against the hard ground at the first step it had taken. She knew without looking that its grin had only widened, because she knew he had seen the soft movement, even with the flashing of the lights – it was a thunderstorm that raged; and it had been storming for most of the day as well. But now it was dark out; Alice didn't know what time it was, and if she had known, it would have meant little to her. All she needed to know was that she was awake, and the Cheshire Cat had come for her; but she would not be swayed. She had decided a long time ago (or perhaps a not such a very long time ago?) that she was not going back to Wonderland. Not ever. If Wonderland was too good for her, then she was too good for it.

"What is sought is most often found, if it is _truly_ sought…" Green eyes narrowed slightly, but she kept her gaze trained on her little white rabbit, continuing to stroke its cheek softly; however, she had stopped speaking to it slowly, letting her sentence trail off, when the Cheshire Cat had spoken to her. And she knew that smug, self-satisfied grin would only spread, until the already painful looking thing appeared as if it were going to snap his face in half. Picking up her rabbit, she held it by its arms, so that it was between her and the Cat, obstructing their views of each other, and wriggled it around a little in the air with an almost delighted giggle. She was not going to acknowledge him at all; she wasn't even going to look at him, quite honestly. Normally, Alice would have defended herself; she knew that he was talking about how she had not searched long enough or hard enough for a way back to Wonderland. But she had. She had searched both long and hard, and had exhausted ideas of how she was supposed to go back to her little world. Had she searched much longer or harder, she might've gone mad – or perhaps it was more proper to say 'more mad', as the Cheshire Cat himself had decreed Alice quite insane the first time she had set foot in Wonderland.

"Only the insane equate pain with success." She bit her lip when she heard this little piece of wisdom, though she kept her mouth tightly and firmly clamped on the skin, not feeling as she bit through a little and tasted copper, swallowing as if it were nothing. She continued to have her little rabbit friend dance across the bed she lay in, wriggling him back and forth by his hands happily. She would not defend herself; she wouldn't claim that she wasn't insane just because she equated success in Wonderland with killing things; killing things, which was hard for Alice. Which was _painful_ for Alice; because Alice couldn't wrap her mind around it – she couldn't fathom why she had to kill these things. Just because they attacked her first? If it was because she was afraid to die, well, she was already far ahead of her Wonderland; she didn't fear death at all. In fact, she welcomed it at times – invited it to her bedside to have tea with her, which was strange – she could scarcely say that she considered death a _friend_, after what it had done to her family, and yet … She never took tea with anything _but_ friends. An interesting thought indeed, and one that she would have shared with her rabbit, had the Cat not stood before her.

The silence droned on for a long duration, only cut into by the sudden bolts of lightning immediately followed by claps of thunder, and the steady rain that seemed to envelope the entire asylum. Rutledge's was far from silent that night, even without the help of the rain storm; there were many noises to be heard in the hallways, even from one's own room, even with the door closed against all sound, as if that would help to drown out the screams and the cries and the shouts and the babbling and all of the incoherent noises that shuffled down the halls as if playing a game of croquet. Croquet; yes, as she had once played with the Queen of Hearts in Wonderland. Wonderland which she would never return to, and would therefore never play the game with the little hedgehogs and flamingos again. Alice wasn't the least bit saddened by this idea, because 'that is a game of croquet,' she thought to herself, 'that one can never win!' And it was true; no one could ever win the croquet game, because even if they did, the Queen would have your head taken off for your impertinence at daring to challenge her and triumph over royalty.

Alice could suddenly tell that if the Cheshire Cat had the capacity to frown, he would have been doing so at that moment; as it was, if she could see the emaciated thing, she would have noticed that his bloodstained grin only got a little bit smaller, not quite so wide as before, but just as painful looking. But she didn't dare look up; she didn't pay any attention to him at all, even though they both knew that she knew that he was there. She would _not_ return to Wonderland, so he could just leave her be about the whole thing. It was strange, to have the Cat here, rather than the Rabbit, but Alice didn't dare question it. After all, he was in some place that she needed to get to if she were going to save Wonderland from the Queen of Hearts. But, as she was never going back, she would never be able to save Wonderland, and so, wouldn't be needing that way to get smaller from the Elder Gnome. Which meant of course, that she had killed a few Card Guards for no reason, as she still hadn't given the key to him, but it saved her from whatever else there was to come in Wonderland, and it spared however many more she was going to have to destroy.

"There's an ugly name for those who do things the hard way." Alice had never heard the Cheshire Cat's voice sound quite like that before; it was a dark glower, almost a snarl, as he leapt up onto the bed. She thought to look, completely on startle reflex, but pressed her head back against the pillow and refused to move it from where it laid. He was impossibly heavy against her frail body, and she wondered quietly to herself where all of that weight came from. He was large, to be sure, but nothing more than skin and bones, quite literally – there was no way that he was as heavy as he felt against her legs, which had yet to really support themselves for an extended duration.

However, she acted as if she felt nothing at all; when really, this was the most real thing she had felt since she had been placed in this asylum. Truthfully, most everything here felt like a dream; nothing hurt – not even the electric shocks. It was more like a dull echo of pain that rang throughout Alice for a moment or two before subsiding. She couldn't feel anything properly anymore; in fact, she had been beginning to think that she had been overly sensitive when she was younger, and was now making up for it by being much less sensitive to everything, or something. That was the only explanation she could come up with that really made sense to her. But now, as the cat sat on her, crawling up her body so that he rested against her belly and grinning at her from behind the little toy rabbit (which was still stubbornly placed between Alice and the cat) she felt his weight. She felt his bones poking into her as he moved. She felt his claws through the blankets, sharp and unpleasant against her. She could feel his angry, hot breaths that smelled like death and decay and old, rotting blood against her face; could see his grin from underneath the rabbit that she still held up, to shield his eyes. Those terrifying eyes, coupled with his smile, and his emaciated form, his strange earring, and all of his tattoos …

He wasn't the Cheshire Cat to her anymore; he couldn't be.

He was just a terrifying creature now that was trying to make her do something she didn't want to do.

And since when did Alice Liddell do anything that she didn't want to do?

She remained silent, still playing with her rabbit idly, as if she'd felt nothing at all, causing it to dance across her field of vision, every now and again giving her snippets of the Cheshire Cat's face; a fang here, an eye there, the gleam of an earring in the light of the lightning every so often. But she never looked at him entirely; she felt as if, if she did that, she would have no choice then but to return to that hellish place, and return to that unsavory task that Wonderland itself seemed to have set before her. And, why should she fix Wonderland anyway? It wasn't as if _she_ had broken it; it wasn't as if it were _her_ fault that it was like that. And it was just as unfair as it would have been to make her clean up someone else's toys when she had done nothing to make the mess, as it was to force her into doing this task of 'fixing' her Wonderland.

The thought occurred to her that, if it was her Wonderland, then who _else_ would have been able to so utterly and drastically change it into the foul place that it had become now? She promptly reasoned with that part of her mind that, even if she had done so, it wasn't on purpose, as she would have certainly known if she had done something to change Wonderland and meant to do it. 'But even so,' it reasoned softly, ' you didn't _make_ Wonderland on purpose – what makes you think you can just _change_ it on purpose as well? Perhaps you did it on accident?' She wanted to argue with this; wanted to reason that if she could not change Wonderland when she wanted to, then what was the point of her going back to Wonderland to try and help it now? If she deliberately tried to change it, how did she know that it was going to have any effect on anything at all …?

The answer was simple; she didn't know, and she wouldn't know, until she tried, and then, what if she found out that she had done all that for nothing, and the Queen of Hearts wouldn't be swayed, and then what? Then, she had just helped to destroy her Wonderland further with her own two hands, and a blade's assistance. Then where would she be? Little, misguided Alice, who just blindly follows orders, no matter how ghastly they are, just because someone tells her that it _might_ save Wonderland. But then, no one had really given her that guarantee in the first place either, now had they? Everything was rather variable, when one got right down to it – which was something that Alice didn't like. Variables, like in her arithmetic equations, which she also didn't like. Especially because of her arithmetic tutor; horrid old man, who smelled of pipe tobacco and castor oil, and he spoke in such a pinched, boring old voice that she could scarcely pay attention to what he was saying, let alone _learn_ anything from the man …

"Boojums have revolting table manners. They'll eat _anything_. Dispose of them or become a meal." The Cheshire Cat purred this to her in his almost frightening annoyed tone – she had still never heard him sound like this before, which was quite curious in itself, and she was quite sure she didn't fancy ever putting him in this mood again; but then, if he would just let her _be_ then he wouldn't be there, being angry at her for ignoring him because he was trying to give her some sort of advice that she neither wanted nor needed, because she was never going _back_ to Wonderland if she could help it – and it seemed she could, because he had obviously come back to take her there, and she was not there yet.

But then … what was he going on about 'boojums'? What in the world was a boojum? Was it like a ghost, or more like a candy? Why would it eat everything? Was it that insatiable? Surely it couldn't be, or it would never stop eating, and it would give itself quite a horrible stomach ache if it never did anything other than eat. That natural curiosity sparked up inside the brown haired girl, and before she could really stop herself asking, she heard her voice posing a question to the Cat.

"What on earth is a boojum?" Immediately she knew her error when she did not see, did not hear, did not smell or taste, but simply felt, _sensed,_ the Cat's horrid grin widen behind her little rabbit, which at the moment, was her only protection from him. Now he thought he had her. But he didn't; Alice was still not returning to Wonderland, and he couldn't make her. Or at least, she rather hoped he couldn't, and even if he did, she would fancy just sitting there on the ground, or perhaps under one of those rather vile toadstools, until she figured out how indeed she was to get _back_ from Wonderland, without having done anything there. But that was only assuming that he had a way to make her go back, and as far as Alice knew, he had no way to do so, and so, this was a moot point, and there was no reason to dwell on it. She was so caught up in telling herself this, she nearly missed the answer to her question, though it shan't have mattered so much if she in fact _had_ missed said answer, because it was insubstantial at best.

"Ah, but that, precious, is for me to know, and for you to find out. Hopefully not in a fatal way …" the creature that laid atop her purred, and she turned her head away from it, setting her little rabbit on the bed next to herself, and ignored the Cheshire Cat. However, as resolved as she was not to return with the cat, and as sure as she was that she wasn't going to, even if he tried to drag her kicking and screaming … There was a pause; a long, silent pause once again only disrupted by the claps of thunder as the storm raged outside; the curiosity had her. It was like … some sort of sickness; or some sort of craving for a drug that she needed to fulfill. At first, it was just a little tick – just a little twitch every now and again. Just a little tap in the back of her mind; she could ignore that, without too much ceremony. However … As the cat laid on her chest patiently, making it harder and harder for Alice to breathe, the girl started to think. She started to question. She started to w_onder_.

What was a boojum? Why did they eat _everything_? They couldn't possibly eat _everything_, now could they? They would most certainly get indigestion if they went around eating things like teacups and chairs and such – things that were certainly meant to accompany food, but were not actually meant to _be _food. And, if these strange creatures that ate everything were now appearing in Wonderland, what other sorts of things had to be there? The Card Guards were nothing new, if just a bit more foul tempered than they were the last time she had encountered them. However, something such as this 'boojum' … That was something that was quite fascinating to Alice, and perhaps … perhaps she wanted to know a little bit more …? The seven-year-old mind inside the seventeen-year-old body was becoming curiouser and curiouser …

Perhaps … … Perhaps it wouldn't _hurt_ … if she just went back … for a little while … Just to see what exactly this 'boojum' creature looked like … And then she would come back to Rutledge's Asylum as if none of it had happened. She wouldn't go anywhere, she wouldn't kill anything, she wouldn't _do_ anything. She'd just see the boojum-creature, and then return immediately … That made sense, didn't it? Yes; yes Alice thought that perhaps that made perfect sense to her – and it would sate her famished sense of curiosity. 'But it sounds as if these boojums are much more famished than I, if they eat everything they see …' she thought to herself as she cautiously opened her green, green eyes – she had closed them, in order to avoid looking at the Cheshire Cat, but now, she thought it probably necessary to look at him, and perhaps get some sort of direction on how she was to return to Wonderland.

At first, as she looked up, she looked to the left of him; at his right ear, where the gold hoop hung from the pointed appendage. Lightning crashed outside the window, and made the metal gleam in the darkness – and it made something else catch her eye, and gleam as well. Without thinking, she turned to fully face the creature that was atop her, though instead of looking at his whole, rather terrifying self, or even at his whole, rather terrifying face, with that bloodstained grin and broken, crooked teeth, focusing instead a little higher on his features, on two in particular, that seemed to be gleaming at her. Gleaming and glowing as the lightning crashed and the thunder roared outside of the window; and the rain fell on the glass, distorting the shadows and making it seem almost as if the Cheshire Cat's face were fading and reappearing, as it had been when she was in Wonderland.

As she stared, she felt that same dizzying effect take her over – small at first, but then, all she could see were those almost sinister, glowing yellow eyes, slanted darkly, and shadowed, yet somehow creating their own light, fading and reappearing … And slowly, after a time, Alice felt herself falling … Falling down … down … down … to that strange new place that Wonderland had become …

"And it seems now, my dear, you have gained the proper depth …" (3)

(End Chapter 2)

1 – Alright, so it says in the manual that no one knows what Alice is saying to the rabbit; and that may just be because she speaks to it so quietly; but, I was looking over the book again, and got to the part where Jabberwocky was written backwards, and it gave me an idea. So what if she couldn't be understood because she started speaking _backwards_? And so, that's where this idea was born from; what she says here is, "And what do you think, Mr. Rabbit?"

2 – Since it would be cruel to make you spend forever figuring out what she said, I'll just tell you. "There's a good rabbit, now aren't you?" Nothing spectacular, I assure you … xD

3 – Again, boring I know, but the same allusion as before; now she has gained 'depth', which means she's returning, as a 'return' is the line that gives depth to an otherwise two dimensional object.


	4. The Fortress of Doors

**A/N****:** _Remember, remember, the fifth of November … The gunpowder, treason, and plot … I know of no reason the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot …_ So … It's been a while, huh? … ^^;; Yeah; apparently, this chapter's been done and ready for … About a year xD. Yeah. Please don't tar and feather me … I completely forgot that I hadn't posted it yet … Also, I know I said I'd post on Fridays, but it's Guy Fawkes Day, so I figured … rather than wait a year so that Guy Fawkes Day falls on a Friday … I figured I'd just post a day early. Oh; and please read the note at the end :)

**Disclaimer****:** Again, not that you didn't already know, but I neither own Alice nor Alice's Adventures in Wonderland nor Through the Looking Glass; they belong to American McGee and Lewis Carroll, respectively. I own none of the plot, nor the characters mentioned herein; everything, (at least as of right now, I'm pretty certain; I do hate OCs, so for the most part, there shouldn't be any) belongs to one of the gentlemen previously mentioned.

Chapter dedicated to Helloween, SuperMargarita, and Wile E Coyote 3

**The Fortress of Doors …**

When Alice woke, she was surprised at first that she was still riding in the strange basket attached to the balloon and bicycle, powered by that elder gnome. She hadn't any idea how long they were riding, of course, because she'd been away for so long – but then, did time pass the same way in the real world as it did in this Wonderland? Alice had never known the answer to that before, because she had never really thought to ask the question – and now that she did, she was quite sure she neither had the answer, nor would she obtain it any time soon … Not that it particularly mattered, she supposed. Sitting up, Alice smoothed out her dress and noticed something strange – very strange indeed. The last time she'd checked, she had had rips in her skirt from when she'd dispatched the card guards in the mines, and she had certainly had bloodstains all over the blue and white fabric as well. But now … the cloth was clean and neat, as if she had just taken it out of a closet and put it on. Fingering the soft fabric lightly, she stared at it, slightly baffled, before she picked up the knife she had put next to her in the basket. The small amount of light in the area glinted off the edge of the blade, and Alice could see her reflection in it – there was no blood on her face at all. Absently, she brushed a few of the dark strands out of her face so she could see a little better, and her attention was caught by something she hadn't noticed before – on the metal, very near to the handle, something was etched. Eyes narrowing just a little, she looked at it more carefully, forgetting about her reflection, which was suitably clean anyway. 'Vorpal Blade …?' she wondered to herself, for those were the words that were neatly carved into the knife, which was clean and free of blood as well. 'Well, since none of me is bloodied … perhaps it was just some kind of dream …? Perhaps I didn't kill anyone at all ..?' she thought to herself, which was actually a very comforting thought really, though even Alice wasn't particularly sure she was going to trust that delusion …

"There is a skool inside the fortress, where you'll find certain items for creating a concoction that will make you small …" the elder gnome spoke to her, sounding slightly out of breath, but she supposed he might've had good reason. After all, Alice didn't know how long he'd been peddling for, and so, he very well may have been quite tired indeed. Of course, she couldn't really find herself caring much either. She was still rather annoyed that she was supposed to be some sort of savior to this world, and that he wouldn't help her without making her do some rather ghastly things in return. (If she had in fact done them; it may have all been some sort of dream.) He was the reason that she'd had to kill more of those guards to retrieve that blasted key; he was the reason, ultimately really, that she had decided she didn't want to return to Wonderland. Why she had felt so abandoned, and wanted nothing more to do with her make-believe world, which no longer seemed quite so make-believe to Alice Liddell.

"What items, exactly?" she said in a rather terse manner; she knew it was impolite, but she really couldn't help it – she didn't expect much help from this elder gnome when she got there (however, to be fair, Alice had only requested that he take her to the Fortress of Doors, and had not asked him to actually make her small) and so, she supposed that she should probably try to get as much help as she could while she was up here, and en-route to the Fortress of Doors. It took him a while to answer, which was fine by Alice, so long as he did so; she assumed he was simply drawing breath so he could speak. However, what was less than with alright with Alice was how he spoke to her next. He almost seemed exasperated with the question – as if she had asked it while fully knowing the answer, and had done it only to annoy him.

"Items, items girl. You'll know them when you see them." Alice fought the urge to call him something along the lines of daft, or perhaps senile in his old age, and instead remained silent – nothing was as straight forward in Wonderland as he made it seem, not even normally. And this Wonderland was a far cry from the curious-yet-familiar one that she remembered – she wasn't anywhere near naive enough to assume that the things that she needed for this 'concoction' would be labeled as 'needed for getting small', or anything of that sort. The closest she'd ever come to something like that had been when the tarts had said 'Eat Me' in the hallway the first time she'd come to Wonderland, and couldn't go through the little door to the garden. At the very best, it would be labeled something mundane such as that, but it would give no more description, and though she could check to see if it was labeled poison (because anything labeled 'poison' was certain to disagree with one sooner or later), she couldn't really expect it to be labeled if it changed one's size … So, she also could not assume that it would not be labeled if it didn't do something to one's stature.

"Speaking of seeing things," ah – Alice had stopped paying attention to the Elder Gnome, but it seemed that he was not done talking to her, so she had probably better listen once again. "We should avoid the Card Guard's notice. Hang on …" Alice looked around a bit and saw what she assumed was the Fortress of Doors below – it was a large compound it seemed, with many doors on the inside and a great wall around the outside. However, it was also covered in Card Guards, and the brunette was slightly confused, considering what the Elder Gnome had just implied. If they were to be stealthy, shouldn't they _not_ fly in direct notice of the walls, where all the Card Guards were patrolling? It didn't exactly make good sense (never minding the fact that nothing in Wonderland always made 'good sense', or even tended to _ever_ make 'good sense') to do something so contradictory to what one's goal was, and as their goal was remaining unseen, unless there was some sort of magic that made this rather large, bicycle powered balloon invisible that Alice simply had not noticed before, well …

" Ahhh – Dammit! We've been seen …" And, evidently there was not. 'I could have told you that would happen …' she thought to herself, crossing her arms, frustrated; apparently he hadn't said that he 'wasn't wise, just old' in jest. She had thought that he was being modest before, but obviously --- before she even realized what was going on she was suddenly bracing herself against the side of the basket, letting out a little shriek as the balloon pitched to one side to avoid whatever it was that the Card Guards were throwing at them. It appeared to be something that was either on fire or glowing – most of them were too far away for Alice to identify, and when they did get a little closer, she was focusing on holding onto the basket, because the Elder Gnome would tip the balloon in such a way that they would avoid being hit. A good thing, all things considered, for when Alice _did_ look down – completely on accident, mind you – she realized with a sudden sinking feeling, that she couldn't even begin to see the bottom of the cavern that they were flying through. It would be a rather unpleasant fall to make, and so she rather hoped that she wouldn't have to make it.

"Eventually, you must break through such walls," he said; apparently he was paying enough attention to her to know that Alice was looking at the large wall around the fortress, and wondering exactly how she was to get around that fortification, and consequentially she was only half paying attention to what he was saying. That was, until he got to the next part of his sentence. "But for now, jump!" And the first thing that Alice thought to ask was: Was this Elder Gnome completely batty? He wanted her to jump down to that tiny little ledge from this height? If she didn't break her neck from the fall, she was certain she'd miss the landing and fall down into all that blackness. She might even fall forever – perhaps that darkness spanned deeper than even the rabbit hole she'd gone down, and that had felt like a long time – she remembered fancying that perhaps she'd fall right through the earth and land on the other side. What a queer little fantasy to have, but – perhaps it wasn't so strange, because that deep darkness seemed rather unforgiving, and rather deep indeed …

However, before she had a chance to argue with what the Elder Gnome had directed her to do, there was a sudden weight behind her in the basket that hadn't been there before, and it rather unceremoniously pushed her out of her seat so that she fell through the air, having to push at her skirts to keep them from flying up around her face. Savior or not, indecent exposure was not something she particularly needed to be identified with. She managed to keep herself from screaming as she went down, and looking around, she suddenly knew exactly what had happened up there.

"Cat!" she yelled angrily as she saw the Cheshire Cat, sitting a few feet away, doing what she supposed was intended to be innocently cleaning his paw off. But she knew better – he wouldn't have been there if he hadn't been the one that had pushed her out of the basket, because then there would be no reason to gloat at her. Crossing her arms over her chest, this wasn't the first time that she would want to level her blade in the feline's direction, she knew, and it most certainly wouldn't be the last either. After a few moments, he looked up at her with his painfully stretched grin, and said simply,

"Observe." 'Observe …? Now what exactly, do you suppose, is _that_ supposed to me---', Alice's thoughts were cut short as she heard just in time frantic footsteps, and turned in time to move out of the way of a Card Guard and his spear. She didn't have time for his silly riddles right now; obviously she had more pressing issues to deal with than thinking about what that mangy cat was getting at. Attempting to jump forwards to stab the card, she realized she couldn't do this because its weapon was too long for her to get close enough to him to land a blow. She barely dodged out of the way of his counterattack and avoided falling off of the edge of the path; he had struck her, but by the same token, she had stabbed him, delivering a shallow wound to his side that didn't look like it would kill him. The cut that she had taken was also a shallow one. There was a sudden pain in her side, but she ignored it, pushing herself to move out of the way and avoid the next strike the Card Guard tried to make.

"Learn." She barely heard the cat purr this out at her as she tried to figure out exactly what to do; she had completely forgotten that she had that deck of cards in the strangely marked pocket of her pinafore at her disposal … They were a long ranged weapon, and would have made this job much easier. But, as she had forgotten them, she was now trying to figure out how to use a knife against a spear. Dodging out of the way again, she backed off, shying away from the Guard for a moment as she thought, or at least tried to, in a calm way. Which was difficult to do … You try thinking when something is thrusting something long and pointed at you with such precision that your dodge still causes your dress to be ripped … And after a moment, a sudden idea came to her. 'Obviously, Alice – if you want to stay away from him and hit him with the knife, _throw_ it, silly girl', she nearly scolded herself, and _that_ very good advice had come not a moment too soon, because the card had Alice backed into a corner.

"And react." Alice nearly turned to look at the cat when he spoke; his voice made her jump slightly, which gave her wrist an extra sharp twist as she flicked it, aiming the knife as best she could at the card's throat. The weapon surprisingly hit home – she wasn't exactly sure how, to be honest, as she certainly had never done anything of this sort before, but … Blood began to spray from the card's neck as he slid down, and she just stood there looking at it – best to leave quickly, before more of them come … … She meant to go and get her knife, of course (she wasn't about to leave it) when suddenly she realized as she reached out with a hand to grab the Meta Essence that sprung up from the card's body, that she didn't need to – it was already in her grasp. 'Curiouser and curiouser …' she thought to herself as she tucked it into the waist of her pinny, which seemed to have become its comfortable little home.

Turning back to where the Cat had been sitting, she wasn't surprised to find it gone – she hadn't expected it to still be there, really. Sighing, she decided she'd better start looking for that 'Skool' the Elder Gnome had mentioned, so that she could find these mystery 'items' to make her small and allow her follow the White Rabbit. Starting down the path, she ducked around what appeared to be a large tentacle protruding from the wall, pausing to look at it, unable to help herself: What on earth …? Deciding she'd rather not know, Alice backed up, instead turning right and wandering around the path a bit slowly and cautiously; it looked rather treacherous, and she wouldn't want to fall into that blackness – it simply wouldn't do, you know. 'If I am to be a savior of this world, I simply can't fall for the rest of my life – what would happen while I'm wasting time falling all that way?' Alice thought to herself as she picked her way down the path. It was crumbling and old, and in desperate need of some sort of repair. Like when she had been small and the stone walkway to the house had been cracked – and a man had come and mended the damage. It was like that, only it was much more than a few bricks that needed to be replaced – it was most of the walkway, some of the walls … …

It took Alice a moment to realize that she had wandered into a new area; it looked similar to if she had been shrunken down to the size she would like to become, and were standing underneath the bureau that used to be in her room. There was a sort of overhang with columns, and the floor was suddenly made of wooden planks, like the parlor used to be, instead of smooth, damaged stone, like the last room had been. Glancing around, she saw that it opened up into a larger room … Strangely enough, the planks disappeared somewhere in the middle of the room, and left another gaping hole … 'My, but this place _is_ fond of it's holes in the ground', she thought presently … And Alice was quite certain if she looked down it, she would see no bottom whence she would careen if she were to fall down there as well. And, as she wasn't particularly fond of the notion of falling at all really, she thought that perhaps she would avoid that at all costs.

However, it seemed that something had a different idea, because as she walked towards the opening to check and see if that was indeed the case – she was curious, after all – she suddenly heard a sort of … swishing noise behind her, like the wind, whiffling through the wood … (though surprisingly, it did not burble as it came …) And it was a good thing that she'd heard that and turned around, because she had just enough time to move out of the way as something suddenly came down at her. Alice shrieked, rolling out of the way and away from the hole in the ground; ultimately a very good decision, more like than not. She pulled her knife out of her pinafore and held it out in front of her so that she could more readily face whatever it was that was throwing itself at her. And quite honestly, Alice Liddell didn't particularly fancy fighting what she saw. It reminded her of those horrid stories that her older cousin would tell her to scare her, about the grim reaper, who was supposed to be a skeleton, that wore a long, ragged black cloak, and came to take bad little girls away who didn't share their toys …

"That savage shriek is just the tip of the iceberg that is the Boojums' repulsive personality." The brunette jumped when she heard that mangy creature's voice. So _this_ was a Boojum? Well, it wasn't much to look at – she didn't really see what was so intriguing about them, and she was instantly annoyed at the Cheshire Cat for telling her about them and trying to pique her interest, when clearly this wasn't something that was particularly interesting, or even _very_ frightening, when it came right down to it. 'But, what does he mean, "savage shriek …?"' this, had honestly confused the girl, because it hadn't made a sound yet – in fact, she was inclined to think that boojums were mute, or at the very least, didn't often make noise. But then, she found that she was very sorely mistaken …

There was a sudden, blood curdling screech, much worse than even when her tutor would scratch the chalk the wrong way on the chalkboard when she was having her lessons … That is, when she still _took_ lessons. It was so loud and high pitched … It was all that Alice could hear, ringing through her mind, and taking over all her thoughts – or at least, what thoughts she managed to formulate – which were mostly singularly focused on one thing: Make that noise _stop_. The brunette didn't even notice when she was screaming along with the creature until her throat was stung – and she barely remembered what she did next, as she took the Vorpal Blade in hand, throwing it as hard as she could in the direction that the sound was coming from – but still, it didn't stop. She was starting to get dizzy now; Alice barely noticed that the knife was back in her hand a few moments later, and even less did she take in when she threw the knife again. But still, the screaming continued, and now, her vision was doubling – doubling so badly that the brunette didn't notice the first Boojum go up into flames and burn. And that one was the _first_ boojum specifically, because there were two – Alice hadn't seen the second one, because she'd been too distracted by that blasted, flea bitten cat and his words, which had been little to no help at all to her. So this was all _his_ fault – despite the idea that perhaps the Cheshire Cat was trying to warn her about what was to come by telling her about the boojum and it's horrific scream …

None of this mattered much to Alice though, because suddenly the most painful thing that had ever happened to her happened all at once, and the poor girl nearly went into shock. There was a terrible pain on the sides of her head, sharp and throbbing, worse than any headache that she'd ever had before (at least, that she could recall) … So distracted was she by the pain that she didn't notice the small mercy of the boojum stopping it's vile shrieking. Which is actually not at all what happened – it would have just seemed like it to Alice Liddell, had she cared to notice; in actuality what had happened was that her eardrums had burst. This disoriented her so much that she fell to the ground almost immediately, and the side of her face hit the planks on the ground so hard that she rolled a bit. However, this teenaged girl was extremely lucky, because she happened to fall just near enough to where the first boojum had been finished off, and moved just close enough to the meta-essence that had sprung up from it that it sunk into her, and the pain in her head slowly ebbed.

Immediately after that, it seemed that it didn't particularly matter, because the other Boojum came after her, for the moment not screaming (for one reason or another). But Alice knew that it wouldn't be long now before it began again … And she didn't particularly want to give it the chance. She was on the ground, and had dropped her knife – it was a few feet away from her, and a little behind her, just out of reach from where she was. And so, she slowly started to slide backwards on the planks of the floor, which she just realized were moving, splitting back and forth from the center of the ground, sometimes closing up the open chasm before it reopened. (She hadn't thought to wait just a few moments so that the knife might return to her of its own accord, as it seemed fond of doing) The sudden movement of the floor made the girl slip slightly, and Alice then noticed that something was under one of her hands. It had fallen out of her pocket, it seemed, and she had chosen then to notice it. 'Oh! The cards! Silly girl; you'd forgotten all about them, hadn't you?' Alice again scolded herself as she picked up the one on the ground, and, reaching into her pocket, took out the rest of the deck.

"Well there then; since you eat _everything_, Sir Boojum, why don't you have a taste of _these_?" Alice's wrist flicked almost wildly as she threw the cards, one after another, hitting the horrid creature that flew around above her – it began screaming again, to be sure, but the brunette hardly noticed. She was not pleased with these things; because of its disgustingly improper manners, she had gone deaf for a few moments and felt as though her head might rupture, and it had been something she had rather disliked. No, hadn't liked it at _all_. This wasn't to say that she dispatched the Boojum quickly, or that her head didn't ache by the end of it, because it most certainly did – it took a bit of a while really for her to dispatch this Boojum as well. Many hits with the cards were needed to even do a little damage, and she was glad for the meta-essence when she had completed her task and it was gone along with it's poor manners.

"Oh no; now this will never do …" she said, sounding worried. The girl had put her cards away when the deeds were done, and her knife had been in her hand instantly. She was looking down at it now, once again spattered with a thick coating of blood. "Not at all." Alice murmured this under her breath as she began to clean the knife off on her skirt carefully, which made the fabric a good deal more stained than it had been before. Alice simply failed to realize that the blood she was cleaning off, while partially the Boojum's, was mostly her own. It had poured out of her ears when the drums had burst, and stained her Vorpal Blade red.

"There –that's much better, now isn't it?" the brunette asked with a smile as she put the knife in the waist of her pinny, which was becoming its customary place. And then she looked about, seeming to just realize that now she had a new task at hand: getting into the Fortress of Doors, of course. Which, suppose, was probably her ultimate task all along, but smaller tasks along the way, such as clearing the path of nasty Boojums and all of that, had come up, and of course she'd had to take care of those as well. Yes; that's all they were, after all. Tasks. Tasks set before her by Wonderland. She wasn't a _murderer_, or anything so crude as that; she was simply performing tasks so that Wonderland could be sure that she was their chosen one – their true savior. It all suddenly became much more clear to her. If she had to prove herself to Wonderland, then so be it – she would rise to whatever challenge beset her.

The floor had stopped moving after she'd defeated the two Boojums, and so now the large chasm was between her and the other side of the room and was stable. Which would have been fine, if she had had no need to go to the other side of the room; unfortunately, upon greater inspection of the room after she had collected her meta-essence, she realized that there were stairs on the other side. And she was quite sure she couldn't get anywhere if she went back outside the room – so it seemed the only option was to go _up_. So Alice walked to the edge of the rift in the floor, and looked down into the swirling vortex that was the chasm below. It was as she suspected; she couldn't see anything that looked even a little like the bottom of the darkness below the floor. In fact, looking around, it seemed almost like the room she was in was floating amidst nothing at all, except swirling gray and black clouds that looked like those things she had read about once – what were they again? 'Hmm … It was sort of like a thunderstorm, but there was more wind, and it looked a good deal more like those things that you use to make sure you don't spill when you pour through them … A flannel? Is that what it's called …?' Alice thought that maybe that was it, but she couldn't be sure, and she didn't have time to waste considering silly things like she had the first time she had come to Wonderland anyway. She had far too many tasks to complete, and she wasn't sure how much time she had.

Deciding that the only option was to jump across, she noticed a small floating piece of floor boards in the middle that she thought might have made crossing a bit easier, and so instead of trying to make it across the chasm directly, she thought she should probably jump first there, as it was a shorter distance, and then continue crossing to the other side. And this plan worked perfectly fine – soon she was across the chasm and walking up the stairs on the other side. 'And of course; there would be more jumping, now wouldn't there?' Alice was exasperated when she reached the top of the stairs and realized that there wasn't anywhere to go but across to the other side, where there seemed to be some sort of door – something she was sure she'd be seeing a lot of, as this _was_ the Fortress of Doors.

'Ah well; come now Alice – it's only a short distance …' she coaxed herself as she backed up a few steps and jumped across to the landing that zigzagged across the room in an 's' like shape. However, when she stood for too long on the platform, it began to slip, as if it sought to throw her from it and out of the huge rip in the wall that exposed the room to the strange, swirling storm that was raging outside of this place. Quickly, she moved down the path further – if it was going to twist, then she was going to have to climb on top of it and keep going before it really did throw her off. Curiously, however, when she went towards the middle, it began to tip back the other way; convenient for Alice, because she could then stand without fear of falling off. That is, until she got to the other side and it began to tip more in the opposite direction; obviously the problem here was the fact that she weighed anything at all, and was tipping the scale. The question was, what scale? There was nothing she could see that was holding this strange pathway up, she realized after she had jumped to the landing she had been trying to get to all along. 'But, it can't simply _float_ there … Well, I suppose that perhaps this _is_ Wonderland, and everything _is_ rather curious, now isn't it?' she thought to herself as she looked at the platform she'd come from, before she turned toward the strange little portal that stood before her, almost as if it were a door, or perhaps a picture, with a wooden frame about it.

Not wanting the cat to suddenly show up and reprimand her for 'dawdling', as the white rabbit had the last he'd spoken to her, she stepped through it, wondering where in the world it would take her …

--- --- ---

And just now she was in a room with stone walls and a checkered floor. 'How curious indeed; it looks just like a chess board!' she thought to herself as she drew her cards from her pocket – she would not be caught by any of those dreadful Boojums off guard again, of that much she could be certain. Slowly, she began to make her way this way and that between the walls, but at first she didn't notice any cards at all, which was strange, certainly – this was a fortress, after all; you'd expect that there would be guards, now wouldn't you? And then, she saw a raised pedestal after a little bit of walking, and there was something sitting on top of it. 'Strange … Now what do you suppose that could be? And why would someone leave it out in the middle of nowhere up there …?' Alice thought to herself, confused and of course, curious, as she climbed up to investigate.

It was what appeared to be a tall red bottle, a sort of … far oversized perfume bottle, like the ones her mother used to have in her boudoir. And in fact, when she managed to climb up to the thing and took a step or two forwards, it suddenly sprayed out a cloud of reddish pink mist; it was thick and hot and burned her lungs and throat when she inhaled it, and she tried to bat it away, as it was a most unpleasant feeling, however … It was far too late for all that.

"Time to raise some havoc! The dogs of war are loose!" Alice didn't hear the Cheshire Cat say anything at all, because suddenly, she couldn't breathe… She couldn't breathe, and the world was suddenly turning a dark red before her eyes – she couldn't think straight, couldn't remember what she was doing … All she could do was stand where she was for the moment, covering her eyes and face, which burned, before arching her back. It felt as if segments of her body were tearing themselves apart and rearranging themselves, but instead of pain, it was a strange burning sensation that filled her up. All she could think of was the fact that her parents had died, she was left in Rutledge's, she had been abandoned by Wonderland, the Red Queen was being a right berk about her crown and abusing her power worse than normal … All of these things and more suddenly hit Alice at once, and they inspired only one emotion inside the young teenage girl with the much younger mind.

Rage.

And then, there were card guards suddenly surrounding her below the platform; Alice nearly screamed with the anger that consumed her – it was all _their_ fault. Her pain, her suffering, her anguish … … And she would make them _pay_. The knife was suddenly in her hand, and she was throwing it, running with it, cutting down her enemies piece by piece as if they were blades of grass next to the river and nothing more. If her skin hadn't already turned red, it would be now, stained with the blood of the guards as she killed card after card after card until there were none left … … But it wasn't enough; she was still angry, still looking for blood – still unable to think of anything but the fact that she wanted to _kill_ …

Alice headed towards a door that she almost failed to notice, still intent on destroying as much as she could; she was so angry it boiled up under her skin so that her blood felt like it was on fire; it was all she could think about – how she had been hurt and betrayed and every time she had ever thought she had been wronged – and even times that she hadn't. Through one door, then the next and the next she went, knife at the ready to cut down card guards in a single slice. Her breathing was quick and sharp, and the grip on her Vorpal Blade was white knuckled.

However, by the time Alice made it through the hallway, she had yet to come across any more enemies, and her rapid breathing slowed … The fire in her veins seemed to die down … Her heart beat calmed down slowly, and she looked down at the hand holding her knife, which was no longer red from the underneath of her pale skin … There was, of course, blood splattered on it, but other than that, nothing else was turning her that unnatural color. The sudden ebb of the deep rage left her feeling light headed for a moment, and Alice needed to lean against the wall that was beside her to catch herself before continuing on to see what was ahead.

'I think I shan't be trying _that_ again anytime soon … ' Alice told herself with certainty, 'it leaves me far too woozy … and disoriented … ' and that was something that she didn't like – what if she had just met up with more card guards, or worse still, Boojums? She would have been in trouble now, because she would have had to pause before she dealt with them, and any pause would have made her too late … Shaking her head, Alice stepped through the last door, and out into an open area that still had some checkered ground standing, but was once again suspended in a dark, swirling mass that made one quite giddy to look at – she found that she was doing so and quickly chided herself to stop. It wouldn't do to get caught up with cloud-watching, now would it?

"Cling closely to the path, Alice. A fall will dash your head along with all our hopes." She jumped when the Cheshire Cat's voice caught her attention, (he was another thing that made one quite giddy, if she could say so) but she didn't see the mangy feline. Putting her Vorpal Blade in the waist of her pinafore, she glanced around; what _path_? There was nowhere to go except back into the place where she'd come from, and there was certainly no merit in going anywhere but forwards, at least in Alice's mind. Narrowing her green eyes, she moved forwards – perhaps the path he was talking about was _lower_ than the platform she was on …? However, her question was answered when she walked up to the edge and suddenly, more squares from the chess board, which seemed to have been cut up to make the ground, appeared hovering over the cavernous darkness. Cautiously, Alice stepped forwards – and waited.

Nothing happened.

'Oh dear; well, perhaps I could ask for directions … …?' the only problem with that thought was that she had no one to ask; except perhaps the Cat, and his cryptic advice wasn't something that Alice wanted at the moment – it would only disorient her. But, she needn't have worried – the path suddenly became a little clearer – more of it fell down before her after a few moments of waiting, and she stepped onto it. The brunette wasn't sure where it was coming from, but she would take what she could get from the strange place that was now her Wonderland.

Alice was less than pleased when the next platform that showed up was one that was a great deal away from her, which meant that she'd have to jump to it and hope that she could make it … And not fall into this strange, swirling void. 'It would be improper, I think to fall while jumping and fly sideways, because then, how would one's dress stay down and keep your legs covered?' she thought to herself; for deeming her it's savior, Wonderland was certainly making this difficult for her. This was the second time that she would have to hold her dress in place if she were to fall down. … None the less, Alice backed up a few steps, and jumped towards the platform just as what looked like a very large door floated by. Another piece of floor fell down, and she stepped onto that too; the platform that she had to get to next was another far jump away, and it seemed to continue in this pattern, two platforms coming down next to each other before Alice needed to jump to get to the next one, until she made it across.

'There, see now Alice? That wasn't so hard, now was it?' she thought, and then, since she _was_ a curious child who was very fond of pretending to be two people, answered as well, 'No, I daresay it wasn't too difficult at all, Alice.' And, very proud of herself for managing to get across the void without too much difficulty, she continued on her way and through the next Door in this Fortress, watching the green and purple swirls as they surrounded her as she stepped through what looked rather like a picture frame. She was more inclined to call it a Door though, considering the namesake of the place she was in. Presently, she became aware of something that sounded like bells chiming; three different ones, but she didn't have much time to dwell on that, because suddenly, there were two Boojums in front of her, and they didn't seem like they were too obliged to wait for her to muse over a few sounds she might or might not have heard.

They were difficult for Alice to kill; the cards didn't seem to hurt them as much as her Vorpal Blade, but when she threw it, (as she had to, because how was one to hit something that was flying when one had no wings of their own?), it took a while for it to come back to her, and she didn't know which hand it would return to – so she couldn't start using cards while she was waiting, because what if she dropped them? Suffice to say it took her much longer than she would have liked … Though Alice did notice that they always seemed to drop larger pieces of Meta-Essence, which did help, because when two of them screamed at once, it was more than enough to make the brunette ill …

Glancing around, it seemed like she needed to go down to a lower platform to continue progressing, though Alice paused before she went down the stairs. There was something like a small dais that was standing to one side of the stairs, and she paused before she passed it; it held a statue, a bust really, made of some strange green material, ('Jade or marble,' Alice said to herself, reasoning that, 'they make statues out of marble, and jade is green.'), and Alice felt like she ought to know whom it was a bust of … But he looked so unfamiliar to Alice that she couldn't really place his face, and she didn't have time to 'dawdle'; she needed to get to the skool so that she could find her ingredients, become small, and follow the white rabbit. And so she continued on her way past the bust and down a small set of spiraling stairs, where sat the Cheshire Cat waiting for her, and what looked like three levers.

"The proper order of things is often a mystery to me. You too?" Proper order? Nothing was 'proper' in Wonderland; she thought that if the Cheshire Cat had to get along in the other world, he would be completely beside himself, having to understand and abide by 'the proper order of things', which he had just said was beyond him. Which made Alice consider the fact of there being _two_ Cheshire Cats, because of course, if he was to be _beside_ himself, there would have to be two of him, right? But then, he was gone, which drew her out of her musings, and Alice paused, looking at the levers. Of course, she would probably need to pull them, but the question was, which to pull? Perhaps that was what he'd meant when he'd said that he didn't know the proper order – maybe he didn't know what order to pull them in? Was there a special order? … Well, suppose there was only one way to find out …

Stepping up to the first lever and pulling it, Alice started when she heard a sudden chiming noise, sort of like a bell. And a high pitched bell, at that. Hmm; where had she heard something like that before …? Walking over to the next lever, Alice pulled that one back as well, and heard another chime; this one was a little bit lower than the first one had been. She moved to the last one, it also seemed familiar to the girl, as it made a chiming sound that was even lower than the first two. But then, all three of the levers sprung back into their original positions so suddenly and sharply, that Alice jumped a little bit and turned around, expecting something to attack her. When nothing did, she looked back to the switches that were before her, and considered them extensively: What did those sounds remind her of? They sounded almost exactly like bells chiming, really.

Wait.

Bells chiming.

Hadn't she heard bells chiming when she had first come into this place? She supposed that she had, and so, she also supposed that if she could remember what order they chimed in, and could pull the levers in that order, then she would have figured out this riddle. And Alice did _so_ enjoy figuring things out all on her own. Standing back a moment to consider a little bit more, she pulled the farthest lever first to make the lowest sound; that sounded right. Now – maybe the highest? The brunette thought so; which only left the middle chime after those two were finished.

And then, Alice suddenly heard a great loud _creak_ing noise, and she chanced a look upwards, and at the other side of the new chasm that she stood before. The girl could _just_ see what looked to be a door opening across from the platform that she had first come in on, before she'd come down the stairs after dispatching those vile Boojums … 'Hmm … Perhaps I'd better go up there so that I can see …' she mentioned to herself as she started back up the winding staircase, and ended up back on the level where that strange bust that she should _probably_ recognize, but since so many things in Wonderland were so different and just plain _strange_, it was likely that she wouldn't realize who or what it was.

It appeared as if she needed to jump across platforms again, and she was getting to be a right professional at doing so, so there was really no problem for Alice, and soon she was across. It was actually even less trying than she would have thought; Wonderland seemed to take at least _some_ form of pity on its Champion, because she only had to jump once, and then Alice simply had to wait for more platforms to show up. A simple task, until you factor in the card guards on the other side; they were diamonds again, so they could throw the red projectiles of that shape at her, and if she wasn't careful, they would probably run her right through. Even this didn't really slow her down, though it was quite troublesome. She threw her Vorpal Blade twice at each, finishing them without difficulty.

She didn't realize it, but she was slowly becoming better at this.

Now it was actually sort of … _fun_.

Walking past the Meta-Essence that had come from the Cards, (she didn't need it, so she left it where it floated), she stepped through the three doors that had opened, and found another diamond standing at the end of the hall. She made short work of it with her cards this time, which went farther than her Vorpal Blade, so she could attack it sooner. There was nothing there but more essence when she finally got to the swirling black and green picture-door that would take her into the next area.

Entering the next room, the floor, which looked once again like a large chess board, suddenly turned itself over, and pieces of it started to float up into the air. Alice almost went after them, shouting for them to come back, but stopped when she saw that they weren't _really_ going anywhere … They were raising up out of the ground almost like stairs that moved so that she could get up to the platform where the next door was. 'Very considerate of the floor,' she thought, 'getting up so that it can make sure I get through.' Once again, jumping proved to be simple, as she was growing ever more efficient at doing it with accuracy. She could predict almost where she was going to land, looking at the platform that she was going to next. If it looked to her like she could make it, she imagined little footprints that were her own just about where she would probably land – and if it didn't look like she could make it, then she didn't try to tell herself she could, and there was no little marker that told her just about where she'd land. Eventually, Alice made it to the higher platforms. She walked through two white columns and into another doorway – there were a lot of those, weren't there? But then again, this _was_ The Fortress of Doors; a great deal of them were to be expected, weren't they?

Through the door, and into another room – there was a door right in front of her, purple and green swirling, bigger than the other doors that she had gone through; it was the easiest one to get to yet. Or at least, it would have been, if it weren't for the Boojums. Suddenly, the door closed and split into three different ones just as a Boojum swooped down to attack her. She threw cards at it, but it was taking far too long … Again, Alice didn't have time to dilly dally all day long; she had work that she needed to be done, and so she aimed her Vorpal Blade, wincing as the Boojum screamed when she threw it. It seemed that she was getting used to the horrid sound though, because it exploded into a pyre, and Alice Liddell scarcely flinched. She finished off the second one with much the same amount of difficulty; they just seemed to need something more to be hit by – the cards and knife took too long. They didn't kill nearly fast enough.

But, whether or not it did didn't particularly matter, because they were both gone now … But now, Alice had a problem … She didn't know which door was the _right _door, and she didn't know what would happen if she were to attempt to go through the _wrong_ door. Would she go to the wrong place? Would something, like more Boojums, come _out_? … For once it wasn't a question that the curious girl wanted answered, but … Keeping her knife at the ready, Alice selected a picture-door, the one on the farthest right, and attempted to go through it. She thought she had chosen correctly when it opened, but then she saw that the swirl inside of it was red and gold; not purple and green. Immediately, the girl backed away – she didn't know where it led, other than somewhere she didn't want to go.

It did some sort of acrobatic trick, a somersault, Alice thought it might have been, up into the air, along with the one in the center, which had apparently not been the correct door either, and they rejoined the door on the far left. And, as it hadn't been the door that was now in front of her, they redistributed themselves. It had been the one that was farthest from her … So, Alice was willing to bet that it was the door in the center that she wanted now. And, when she managed to get over there and approach it, she saw she was correct; when it opened, it revealed a swirling green and purple vortex, which she gladly walked through.

(End Chapter 3)

**A/N****:** So, what do you all think? Should I write the next chapter in Routledge's, or should I write another gameplay chapter? I can't really decide … So I figured I'd leave it up to you :) Just leave it in a review. I'll tally 'em up before I write the next chapter, and write whatever you want.


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